Notes From The Dog Park

This is not going to be a ponderous thing. Just a little note to say why I’m not writing furiously in my makebelieve world or in my real world.

My sister is here with my niece and nephew. Like me, her children are Fur Kids, so my home is running amok with Cousins who love to play with one another. We keep making plans to go someplace but then end up just watching the kids play. They are so funny.

I’ve been thinking lately about the many differences between parenting skin kids and parenting fur kids. One of my friends with skin kids said that she thinks God made a mistake not giving me skin kids since I’m such a teacher-y type. But I watch my friends and family who have them, and most folks are at the stage where their offspring are either going to college or just hitting puberty. There’s a lot of adjusting going on.

The nice thing about fur kids is that it’s sort of like having a baby who then grows into a six year old over the course of 18 months and just stops. You’re then left with a happy, playful six year old whose ability to sass back is very much limited….and if you’re lucky that six year old is with you for ten or twelve or fourteen more years. It’s a nice option for someone like me who loathes change in most of its forms.

Also, if you have a recalcitrant skin kid it’s bad form to give them pieces of candy or meat to get them to obey you. With a fur kid, on the other hand, Game ON! Much easier to bend these little eejits to your will. Sure I miss passing on what little bit of thought I have masquerading as ‘wisdom’. Dogs don’t care about things like “Live debt free”; “Only marry a true friend”; “Mean kids have their own unhappiness. Live in joy and the meanness of others ceases to hurt after a while”.

But just like mean kids, other sorrows disappear after awhile too. Joy leaves its mark and it’s easy to be happy with the good you do have and to stop mourning the good that passed you by.