So This is What's Up

We're not pet people. In the 14 years Mark & I have been married, we've had exactly 2 pets. Both were goldfish we named 'Jonah' and 'The Whale'. That's it.

We travel a lot. We've got 4 kids. Who needs more poop in their life? Animals smell. They have to be given things, like food and water, EVERYday. They're not cost effective. Pets don't produce stuff for people. And I generally don't do ANYTHING gross. The bodily fluids and teeth and nails of an animal give me shivers down my spine. Neither of us grew up snuggling up to Spot on the couch, or having Daffy rub up against our leg when we got home.  We're not pet people.

Until now.

Here we go, let me introduce Lila (not to be confused with Lilla, which is the name Lydia calls herself.)

This is our puppy. We haven't brought her home yet, but I wanted to write this post while I'm still in the euphoric stage of having someone else take care of all the needs of our dog. Because once I'm actually surrounded by the poop and pee (and who really knows what else?!) I may not be so romantic about this little pup.

But right now, at this very moment....I'm totally smitten.

How a 14-year stance against owning a dog collides into owning a dog 6 months later is an interesting story only to me. But because this here is my space, I'm gonna share it.

The Cliff's Notes version is that we're getting a dog because Luke and Caleb asked for one.

Granted, Claire asked for a pet years ago and the answer was always a responding 'No.' (See paragraph 2)
And the twins have asked for quite a few years to have a dog and we've always listened fully to the request and firmly squelched the idea with our standby 'No.' End of story.

But something last November began to turn my heart.  It was getting to be Christmas time and so all the chillins were making lists about what they wanted. And there wasn't much on the boys' lists. But they really wanted a dog.

Later we were around some other children and I kept hearing over and over about all the stuff all those kids wanted. Wanted for Christmas, wanted for dinner, wanted for fun.  Lots of asking and lots of wanting and honestly I wasn't impressed. Just thought, "See that's what we've become. Our kids just ask and ask and ask and are never satisfied." (it's actually not a kid thing, it's an all people thing).

But then I considered my kids' wish lists. And I began to think about some of the things that Luke and Caleb ask for. The truth is, there wasn't much.  Our boys don't ask for tons of stuff, they aren't picky about what they eat, we rarely join the marketing machine that permeates most of childhood here in the US. While being active, loud, roudy boys I thought, "They're really good kids who want a dog."

Let's get them a dog! They don't ask for much, they kind of, might get overlooked part of the time because they're twins and 2 six year old boys at the same time overwhelm people, but most importantly since they can clean toilets now, they are totally old enough to clean up dog poop!

So Mark and I actually prayed about this dog and whether or not we should have one in our life, and here we are 6 months later on the verge of owning a Boxer.

This is but the first installment of the Legends of Lila.