Babies and Doggies

I was at a milestone time in my life when I got him. He is technically #2 for me, as Kate the cat was the first living thing to enter into my living sitch. (minus Bernie the hamster from college…RIP, rodent) Knox (boy dog) came just after I bought my first place on my own. I was dating now hubs, but trying my hardest to be independent. Knox brought me some responsibility and someone who actually needed me all of the time. Kate needed me to feed her once a day and to leave her the F alone so she could relax and sunbathe the rest of the day. On Sundays, she didn’t mind if I changed her litter. Any more often than that and she would spew it all over the floor in a fit of rage. Weird, I know. 

Knox is a Cavalier (plus something way bigger than a cavalier as he surpassed and pretty much almost tripled the max cav weight of 13 lbs). He is a rescue and so docile. He is an old man at heart and we often call him the “Queen’s dog”. He is sweet, docile, and loves to be well behaved most of the time. He sleeps  in bed with me (if he can jump his non-athletic self onto the platform bed) or at least next to my side of the bed. He snores. He gets up at night and stares at me. He one time got pretty heated at S when she was about a year old because she pulled really hard at him. He never bit but let her know he was PISSED. It was the first time I really had to think about the roles of all of my babies in the house, and it was hard.  

This brings me to last week. Just before S’s 3rd birthday week. Boy Dog took an interest in her bedroom, and she in him being up there. Finally one day, he plopped his lazy butt on her bed for nap time, and the two of them took the longest nap she had taken in weeks. Fluke? Not willing to bet on that. Since then, he has become the nanny dog. He goes to bed with her each time she sleeps and stays in bed the whole night. And whole nap. And she sleeps too. Crap. If I knew this was the case, I would have put him in there months ago! He doesn’t snore either (at least that I can hear on the monitor). He found his Queen. She plays dress up with him- I can hear the chatter from her room as she pulls her dresser apart. HEART MELTING. 

As much as this makes me a happy (and heart melting) mom, its also kind of sad in a way. Boy Dog and I needed each other for a long time. And now he needs someone else and that someone needs him. He needs his little girl to snuggle and chat with him. They are a bonded pair. (which is equally terrifying as doggies don’t live forever). They are just the sweetest together. Boy Dog doesn’t get up at night anymore. S doesn’t get out of bed. They chat in the morning and come out together ready for breakfast. The whole house is sleeping more peacefully. And mama is reminded of how important all the babies are- fur or otherwise. Here is what I know about my precious THREE fur babies and their human babies: 

-They are all truly siblings. They have their arguments and times that they have no interest with one another, but they have to learn to coexist. 

-Sometimes babies and doggies don’t mix, and thats ok. Ours do, and Girl Dog doesn’t love her babies like Boy Dog does, but she will walk away and go do her own thing. I often joke that she was meant to live in the wild. 

– No one wants to think about when their pets will age and pass, and it gets way harder when the dog’s new queen is your 3 year old sweet baby. 

-Love the way your babies and doggies love each other. They look past the bad breath and dirty, skinned knees and just LOVE. No agenda. Nothing to get done before they just hug and snuggle.