Rose’s dearest Christmas wish was for “a real, live puppy.” Possibly named Rocky (this was even prior to the addition of new cousin Rocco to our family). If I had wanted to affirm the existence of Santa – Rose is a believer, D hasn’t since being able to read chapter books [shake fist at library] – and if I was crazy – I would have gotten her one for Christmas. (Grammar nerds, can I even use dashes like that? That’s just a cumbersome sentence.)
When we saw Santa coming out of a neighbor’s house, Rose was SO excited, and I had to stop her from running across the street to see him. The neighbor knows her, and asked in his best Santa voice, “what do you want for Christmas, Rose?” and she affirmed that she wanted “a real, live puppy.” None of these stuffed toys we were gearing up to get her.
Unfortunately, she didn’t get her wish. I had long ago made a pledge to never again in life get a puppy in December. It is the worst time to try to potty train a dog. A few days after Christmas, Grandma Vickie gave Rose a couple of beanie baby dogs that had been around since Anna was into those. And Rose was gracious, but she kind of complained that she hadn’t gotten her real puppy.
I said, “But Rose, we have two dogs, and Dharma and Django might not like having a new puppy in the house. We only have two kennels, where would the puppy sleep?”
And Rose turns to her grandma and says, “Do you want one of our dogs?” Of course I object, and we laugh about it.
But a couple of weeks later, she’s still bringing it up. She got a little dose of baby animal fun with some foster kittens that Kate and Sophie had in their apartment. The funny thing is, she really likes Dharma and Django. At least, she sweats the heck out of them all the time. She’s constantly trying to involve the dogs in her games and other activities, she loves taking them outside and feeding them and taking care of them. She’s actually pretty responsible, and would be the perfect pet owner if I didn’t occasionally have to say, “when Dharma is hiding under the couch it means she doesn’t want to play right now” or “don’t put that on Django’s head, please.”
Three dogs would definitely be too much, though. At least, you should tell Charles that is what I said, and we’ll see what happens once it gets warm again…
Tags: postaweek2011
I keep trying to send Dascha home with Rose. That’ll give her 3 dogs. I think it’s fine since Dasch is already potty trained.
Um, to quote my son, “No thanks!”