Life with a dog

We're watching our friends' golden retriever for a couple weeks while they're away. We've only had her for 30 hours and it's been quite the adventure! She's a perfect little lady, except when she gets excited or when she eats one of our finger puppets and barfs it all over the inside of her crate. Ugh.

The puppy in her wants to play all the time. So far, Alice has been happy to take her outside and throw toys until both of them come in hot and sweaty/panting.

Robert has a love/terror relationship with this dog. Inside the house, he's completely paralyzed and totally freaked out. He's scared she'll jump or lick or sniff or look at him funny, which she inevitably does. He spends most of his time behind a closed door (i.e. in his room, the bathroom, or safely locked in Mara's crate while she's wandering the premises) or high up on the couch. When they're outside together, though, Robert completely adores her. He throws toys for her and hand-feeds her treats. I caught a peek of him this afternoon giving her a big hug from behind.

James thinks this dog is the best. All the time. She's right at his eye level. He throws toys for her, feeds her any little scrap of food he can get a hold of, and sometimes plays a squealy game of chase. He's also fond of her crate and will play in there at every opportunity. He comes out covered in dog hair. Yesterday, he was rolling around inside singing a little song to himself. He likes to open and close the door on himself.

There are a few things I like about taking care of a dog...the very things that make her different from having a child. She's pretty obedient. She's trained to ring a bell when she needs to use the potty. I can lock her in her crate when she gets too crazy. She eats the same thing all the time without complaint. I can leave her home when I need to run an errand. Overall, she's been pretty darn easy to manage.

Does this make me want to get a dog? No. Quite the opposite. Perhaps I'll reconsider later when all the other little dependent lifeforms in this house have grown and gone away.