Kids are Dogs

We love them almost equally.  And before you had kids of your own, your dogs were like your kids. Little did you know that not much would change, and those pet-owner skills would translate seamlessly into parental skills.

23 Ways that Kids are like Dogs…

1. You have to feed them, and give them water.
2. If you don’t supervise them they will mess shit up.
3. They want attention all.the.time.
4. When other people come over, they will act as if they are seriously deprived for attention and love.
5. They chew on ev.er.y.thing.
6. They get really excited when you say “Go” “walk” or “outside”
7. They insist on following you everywhere.  Even the bathroom.  Where they will sit on your feet until you are done.
8. They make excellent leg/foot warmers.
9. You have to clean up their poop.  You and your hubby also fight over who’s turn it is to do this.
10. You’ll never get through a meal without some begging.
11. They should be on a leash in public.
12. They like to play fetch. You probably don’t call it that with your kids, but asking them to get something for you is indeed Fetching it, right?
13. You bribe them with treats.
14. You can’t leave food unattended around them.
15.  You expect them to understand and obey simple commands, like “stay” “sit” “no” “leave it” and “drop it”
16. You buy them special toys and they would still rather play with your socks, or underwear, or hair brush.
17. They make the best cuddle buddies.
18. You’ll love them unconditionally, even when they are covered in mud…or poop.
19. They consciously choose to roll in poop.
20. They wipe their wet nose on you.
21. Those sad “puppy” eyes get you every time.
22. They stick their face in your crotch.
23. Get used to being crawled on, laid on, jumped on, clawed at…

And still we love them.

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Family Pets

Izzy, Chloe and Zeke.  Our first children, really.  They are what we used as “practice” for our future parenthood.  We got Chloe and Zeke our first year together. Kitties are pretty easy though, but still gives you something besides yourself to take care of every day.  Then we got Izzy as a puppy the year after we got married.  Izzy was the real practice…a 4 month old puppy.  She really introduced us to sleep deprivation and cleaning up the house every morning (yay potty training).

When J came along, we weren’t sure how the kitties and Izzy would react, when we’d introduced Izzy to the family, Chloe didn’t come out from under the bed for a month and threw up all over the house in protest…what were we in for with a baby?!

Well, we lucked out.  Izzy was a great mama bear and didn’t even budge when J cried at all hours of the night.  She stayed close and made sure everyone was OK.  Luckily Gramma was around to give Izzy a little extra (and needed) TLC the first few weeks we were home with J.  The Kitties didn’t even seem to notice there was something new in the house.  Although they did lay claim to all of the baby gear…”this crib is for us, no?”

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Keeping a close on on baby J 🙂

Chloe was always a little persnickety…she used to scratch the heck out of me anytime I picked her up, and she wouldn’t come too close for too long.  Not a cuddly kitty and she certainly had no tolerance for being snuggled.  Then came J.  There’s something absolutely adorable about a kiddo connecting with a pet.  Chloe will be J’s kitty from now on.  She stays close to him, puts up with him pulling her tail, her fur, her whiskers, and she doesn’t make a peep.  Chloe found her person 🙂

Zeke is starting to realize that as J becomes more mobile, he will be an acceptable source of attention.  He’s coming around, but hasn’t quite warmed up to J as much.

Izzy is a little unsure when J tries to lay on her or give her smooches, but she’s so great with other little kiddo’s that once J gets a little bigger she’ll come around and they’ll be good buddies.

Being parents to pets is a little different that parents to kiddos, but we still hope that we raise them right, that they get enough love and attention, and we spoil them all the same.  We love all of our children.

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