Member of the Family

The current discussion is pets. It was a traumatic weekend for my sister- and brother-in-law as they had to take their 3 year old doberman back the the breeder. He's become too possessive of his people and actually attacked their beagle, who has seniority by a year or two. This happened on the tail of my husband's frustration with our own rather high-energy hunting dog--"Either call that breeder and have her come and get this dog or I'll take it back myself!"

In our case, it is not truly the dog who is at fault. When you buy a german shorthair pointer, you need to be prepared to give it plenty of daily exercise. And ours has become quite the couch potato--although not by her own design. She is overweight, yet constantly cruises the counters for food. When guests arrive, she jumps--literally--at the chance to greet them and be petted. She suffers, I think, from chronic boredom.

So, in went the electric pet fence. This will allow her to be outside safely without having to be hooked up on the trolley. Although she really doesn't want to be outside at all unless her people are. I did take a few minutes to play fetch today, and plan to make it a daily habit for at least one of us to wear her out a bit. Her inside annoyances need to be addressed as well...but we're taking baby steps here.

Speaking of babies, we signed up last spring to be raisers for the local Leader Dogs for the Blind. Then they sent me a letter that stated we were due to get our program pup in winter 2008/2009. Needless to say, I don't want to potty train a puppy in the dead of Michigan winter, and I don't want to think about adding a new pet and the "peanut butter cup" all at the same time. So, I think we will decline to participate until a more opportune time. And yet, one reason for looking into the program remains...

That reason is that the dog we currently have did much better last winter when we were fostering another dog. They played! She lost weight! She was better behaved! My babysitter swears that there is power in numbers--the more kids, she says, the more she gets done since they amuse each other. I am hesitant to apply this logic to our dog, but I confess to wondering if adding a canine might just reduce the stress our little pack has been feeling with its four-legged member.

My husband rolls his eyes at statements like this, but then confesses that I might be right. Of course, perhaps we have simply stepped over the line into complete insanity. After all, adding another kid wasn't in our plan, so why not another dog too? Perhaps we should consider naming the baby Noah--since apparently our household is destined to become something of a zoo.