My heart is filled with sorrow tonight.  A dear friend fell victim tonight to a speeding car.  I was back at the old house packing up crates for moving when my wife called to tell me that she and the boys came upon the still warm body of our beloved cat Zipper in the road outside our new house.  She had a presentation earlier in the evening and the boys had gone to help her while I was moving furniture.  I closed up and headed home - a nearly two hour journey due to an accident on the viaduct and a long ferry wait.

 

I made it home after 11pm and the family were all curled up in bed.  The boys were asleep, my wife still waiting up.  She filled me in on the details and how everyone was doing.  My eldest, who had picked Zipper out from a friend who runs a rescue colony, was distraught.  I'm happy he got to hold his cat for awhile to say goodbye.  Our youngest was sad too but a little perplexed I don't know he understands yet that Zipper won't wake up.

 

I am left with a hole much larger than you would think an eight pound cat could leave behind.  Even as a kitten Zipper was an exceptional cat.  Fully a member of the family from the first, he prefered sleeping with each member of the family every night and he would make the rounds - putting our eldest to bed and then tucking himself in behind my knees later in the evening.  Zipper was amazingly trusting for a rescue cat - he would roll on his back to have his belly or chin scratched and would wrestle with my feet in the kitchen when I cooked or did dishes.  When my wife was pregnant with our youngest, Zipper napped on her every day to keep her company and he continued the tradition with the baby nearly every afternoon for the past two years.  Zipper and I would frequently box with him holding a place of advantage from the upper bunk and he would let me know his food dish was empty by stretching himself to his full length up my leg or with the loudest meow in the world.

 

I'll miss Zipper's head-bonk greetings, slow-blink kitty kisses, playing happy paws and purring while he's scratched. 

 

Goodbye my friend.

Last month we had several weeks of uncharacteristic weather - deep freeze and dusting of snow.  One of these evenings I left work an hour before rush hour started and it still took me two hours to make it home.  My wife had come up from t-town with the baby and the dogs just before the snow hit and kindly gave me a heads up as to what was on the way.  When I wearily walked in the door we had a bite to eat and I sat down to play legos with Mr. Bodhi. 

 

After about an hour of decompressing  I realized it was awfully silent from the back yard.  When my wife went to let the dogs in, she found the gate open and dogs gone!  A quick search of the immediate street and neighbors yard was fruitless and, following the advice on finding lost pets on the local animal shelter site, we bundled up the baby and began a 20-block slow-drive search calling the dogs names and asking pedestrians if they had seen our pups.

 

Of course the search turned up nothing and after the 16th block we both realized it was fruitless.

 

Back home we realized it was dark, snowing and neither of the dogs had tags or licenses.  They were chipped at the rescue shelter but that takes extra equipment to figure out.  Of all the nights for the dogs to spend outside, this was probably the worst in my mind as I saw them lost and wandering with wet fur, finally curling up with each other under a loading dock or deck for warmth but falling asleep and freezing to death in the wee hours of the morning.  Dramatic I know but these are pretty young dogs who aren't car smart and I have no idea of how well their homing instincts are developed.

 

As it got darker and darker, both my wife and I regretted all the days we had scolded the puppies for chewing, barking, jumping or peeing on the floor.  I read through shelter sites on what to do if your dog escapes and remembering my meager search and rescue training went back out again with the baby to drive the streets looking for the puppies.  My wife stayed home to post dog lost notices on local bulletin boards (the internet is so cool).  I talked to every dog walker I saw and had no reports from several blocks around from anyone who had seen our dogs.  Everyone was kind and promised to keep an eye out.  Later I realized this was a sign that the pups were not at large since they have a tendency to swarm strange people and dogs on sight (don't have good stranger manners yet).

 

I went home and put together some "Lost Dog" signs and hit all the major intersections before going to bed.  Both my wife and were distraught at not knowing where the pups were but she had faith that someone in our neighborhood probably took them in for the night since that the type of area we live in. 

 

Next morning my wife was on the phone with the local shelter the minute they opened and, sure enough, one of our neighbors a few blocks over had found the dogs running free, knocked on doors to see if anyone recognized them and then took them home for the night when he didn't find a match.  Turns out he actually talked to the folks next door who didn't recognize our larger-size pups (they doubled in weight over the past thirty days).  End of the story is that we met at the park and the dogs - far from looking like they suffered from their adventure - appeared to have been better fed than when they were at home.

 

Needless to say we were all happy to have them back and we've invested in collar tags with my cell number on them.

I'm still not quite sure how it happened but somehow over the course of the past weekend, we added two puppies to our existing 4-person, 2 animal family.  This brings the ratio of bi-peds to quadrapeds even so I supposed we can now all hold pickup soccer games without anyone having to sit out.

 

We have been talking about getting dogs for over a year now but I have always had the upper hand by pointing out the minimal amount of room left in our lives after raising a 2 year old, a 12 year old, handling house chores, vehicles, working & special projects - not to mention relaxing or enjoying each other's company.  Since we are right in the middle of a major living situation change - more in another post, my wife of course happened upon a rescue situation last week for exactly the breed of dog we have been looking for.  Seemed like a long shot so I said yes we should follow up and of course there turned out to be a secret stash of puppies and before I knew it we had two enroute by car from Idaho.

 

My thought on dog ownership was that it would be easy once we moved with more fenced space etc. etc.   Problem is we are about two months ahead of schedule.  The dogs arrived Saturday afternoon - 7-8 weeks old - and of course are a delight.  They romp and play, are fluffy and affectionate, have the sharpest puppy teeth in the world, routinely beat the tar out of each other and of course are having trouble figuring out the difference between inside and outside.

 

My wife has given up on the carpet - it's was already on it's way out I figure.  We are working on the crate training and leash, clicker etc.  I have to keep reminding myself that they are the equivalent of the toddler and just don't know any better.  That said, when they earnestly fight for control over the pigs ear or the one chair dogs are allowed on, they are almost as fun as having another toddler.  No photos handy but i'll post some shortly.

So this past weekend we were emergency dogsitters for some friends who were called suddenly out of town.  Now I fully support dog sitting as it gives my family a feeling for what it will be like to have a dog around the house before we fully commit - kind of like taking in your niece or nephew before you have kids.  Being the only one of the family who was relatively responsible for the care and feeding of a canine while growing up, I don't believe that the rest of the dog enthusiasts in the family fully recognize the time, effort and attention required to include a dog in the family.  Already having more projects on deck than we can complete, adding a full-time dog seems like folly to me.

 

The dogs in question are great test subjects to prove this point.  It's not because they are awful dogs - to the contrary, both are very sweet and fit into the family pretty easily - it's that having two medium to large size dogs in our daily life really shows what is required in the care and feeding of additional family members.  Boiled down to a cost and benefit list, the weekend looked like this:

 

Benefits:

Costs:

Crap.  My family wants a dog. 

 

To be clear, I have nothing against dogs.  I grew up with them in the house and some of my best friends are dogs.  I just prefer a more unclesque role when it comes to this type of responsbility - everyone is happy when you borrow the dog and you give it back when you are done.

 

We already have two cats, a hamster, a toddler, a pre-teen and a fairly ambitious wife under one roof.  In addition we sport a fairly long list of "would like to's" - from home projects to hobbies to general goofing off time.  Between work and kids and family this list appears to be growing faster than our schedule.  I know that the eleven year old will take all the responsibility and the cats will learn to cope.  I just ask: "Is this what we really want?".  If so, why not just have another baby?