Good Dogs?

Well, you might tout the necessity of a good dog, but let me tell you, I have a good dog and she's the queen around here. On football Saturdays, she's the one cuddled up on the couch next to my hubby. In the summer, they are out in the hammock and they're snoozing together in the sun.

Where am I? I am certainly not in a hammock. I am fully upright, managing the small things that add up to my big domestic life. You know, the life where most of the sentences start like this, "Mom, where's my..." and then you fill in the blank with some item that requires the detective expertise of Sherlock Holmes to find.

Our dog goes on runs with my husband. She goes out for coffee at the local cafe. She rides around in the car with him on his errands. I think my husband is actually dating the darn dog!

Am I jealous? Of course I am! I wish I didn't have to be the fun police of the family unit. Someone has to kick that man of mine off the hammock and make him change the freaking halogen light bulbs. Which is another topic, but, I think men invented those for sure!

And...every time I kick him out of the hammock, he loves me just a little bit less and that darn dog just a little bit more.

Doggy Twilight

This is not the kind of twilight that requires vampires, unless you count the medical professionals that we've recently dealt with. Read on...

My family has a dog named Kiki, but her master is really only my husband. She lives waiting for him to come home. She follows him around the house. If he goes out on the lake kayaking without her (normally she is on board), she waits on the end of the dock until his safe return.

The love is wholly mutual.

This spring, my husband took Kiki to the vet for her check up. The vet noted the age on the chart, and sat my husband down for a speech about Kiki's Twilight Years.

It basically began with, "Now that Kiki's life will be ending soon..." It continued along the lines that now that she was officially a senior dog, she needed special care. Special food. Special vitamins. Special tests. Special insurance.

My husband came home sad, depressed and sure that she was going to drop dead at any minute. He was certain that she needed all kinds of things to the tune of $2000.

You may want to stop me now, but, let me say, I grew up on a farm. This dog does not look like she is going to keel over any time soon. I can say this because Kiki still can run for 2 hours with my husband--uphill, with a doggie smile on her face.

I understand the need for special care for elderly animals, but it seemed like the vet was going for shock value, and the dollar sign value.

Pets are members of the family, and I think issues about their health and impeding doom need to be handled carefully. Do not scare me into submission. Work with me like a grown up. Do you really think that if there is something this dog really needs that we will not move Heaven and Earth to give it to her?

Capitalism and pet care, what an ugly mix.