Puppy Love - 4/1/09

I have a friend who, like myself, worked for many years before making the decision to stay home full time with her children. A stay-at-home mother is both the hardest and most rewarding job there is. She provides food, love, comfort and discipline while enduring sleepless nights, endless worry and a house that is never completely clean. Eventually my friend had reached a point where her children were in school all day. For the first time in years, she could go to the gym, do food shopping alone, run errands at her own pace and keep her house clean. And just as she was getting used to that small amount of freedom, my friend was suddenly thrust back into the world of sleepless nights, baby gates and a messy house.

Oh, did I mention this is because she got…a puppy?

Recently my friend mentioned that she and her husband were picking up their new puppy at the airport the next day. Her kids had been begging for a dog, so they did their research, settled on a breed, and arranged for their puppy to travel cross-country. I had my doubts, of course, since my friend is allergic to dogs and is a bit of a clean freak (her house is always neat and tidy). But they chose a hypoallergenic breed (Labradoodle) and she was so excited to surprise her kids that I couldn’t bring myself to voice my concerns about the decision.

The day after my friend picked up her puppy, I received this e-mail (edited for language): “Holy bleep! My home has turned into a haven for urine...Holy bleep! What have I DONE?” The next day I received this email: “I have an infant running around my house that is not potty trained and peeing all over…he was CRYING in his crate (or should I say crib) from 9pm-2am…shoot me…shoot me!”

After that, the e-mails stopped (an ominous sign). I visited my friend and her incredibly cute puppy the following Monday, after her husband left for work and her kids were at school. As I handed her a much-needed coffee, I noticed redness around her eyes and nose. Had she been crying? Nope, that was her allergic reaction to the hypoallergenic puppy (uh oh.) I asked how her kids had reacted to their “surprise” puppy. Her daughter was thrilled. Her son asked, “How old is it?” followed immediately by “What’s its life expectancy?” Then the puppy nipped her son, whereupon he said, “I think it needs to be put down…it bites.”

My friend learned quickly that the bulk of the puppy care would fall on her shoulders. Who else would be there to let the puppy out hourly, feed it, play with it, walk it, clean up after it? To quote her directly; “I’m doing everything but breastfeeding it.”
To her credit, when she does something, she gives it her all. Soon she was enrolled in puppy training classes and watching Cesar Millan videos (he’s the “dog whisperer”).

Two weeks later, I met my friend for lunch. I suggested bringing lunch to her, but she quickly asserted that she NEEDED to get out of the house. As we ate, she filled me in on all the news. The puppy could only be crated for two hours at a time. The puppy needed to go out hourly. The puppy was trying to chew the cabinets. She sprayed the cabinets with something nasty to discourage the puppy from chewing. The puppy was now licking the cabinets. The spray seemed to be giving the puppy the runs. She had to collect stool samples for the vet. Some of those samples contained glittery beads from her daughter’s craft kit.

At least her allergies had abated and I consoled her with the fact that, just like our children, the puppy would grow and learn and eventually require less round-the-clock care. It was also clear to me that she really did love the puppy, even if she didn’t love the full-time attention it required. We both realized that the best part about having a pet when we were kids was that our parents took care of them. Now we’re the parents.

So if you’re thinking of getting a puppy, come over to my friend’s house first and walk a mile in her shoes. Just be sure to watch out for the poop.