Somewhat jokingly, I wanted to have a little girl... and name her Piper.... just so we could say that quote over and over again when she was learning to walk, once she fell asleep or when she was on the floor having a tantrum!
Two boys later...
But guess who I found on a local humane society website.... a little girl dog named Piper! She is almost 50 pounds and just recently turned one! She is described as a "wallflower" who will blossom with kindness and love. When Pickle heard me read that comment out loud, he said, "We can give her that!" Yes we can, little man! We have an abundance of those two things in our home.
And here she is! "Awwwwwwwww".
The boys REALLY want a dog. I do too. Farmer J... not so much. I tell other farmers/country folk our 3 to 1 dog/no dog vote in the house and everyone gives J a hard time. He takes it well. But really, what farmer doesn't want/need/have to have a trusted sidekick? "What's that Lassie? Timmy fell down the well?" But more so... don't two little boys need to have a dog to play with on the farm?! If anything, for their safety (see earlier sentence about the well)?!
But even I have some natural concerns with getting a dog. And here they are!
1.) Will a dog be too rough with the chickens and sheep. Our animals are kind... and tame... and happy. We do not want to mess with our peaceful farm. Notice I'm not worried about the goats. The goats, especially Padraig, can hold their own.
2.) Is it unsafe to have a dog when you live near a busy highway? How could we keep this animal safe?
3.) Would having a dog cramp our style? Don't get me wrong... we do live on a farm, but we also like to go away for weekends and trips. It's pretty easy to pay a teenager we know and trust to come by morning and night to do animal chores. It only takes about an hour a day and the going rate of $10/hour. A dog would be more work, more money and more time...
4.) Do we want an animal in the house again? We had a cat... named Ollie. Ollie had LOTS of fur... and would puck up fur balls... and would pee in the house... and sometime dragged his "little brown crayon" on the carpet. Ugh. I shutter just at the memory of those things. It has been REALLY nice not having to "de-fur" our clothes, worry about our house smelling of animal and getting stains out of rugs and carpet! But... we do miss having another little furry life being in the house.
Well, this is where we are at in the dog or no dog dilemma. Stay tuned. Regardless, we will wait until we own our own home... and have moved into said home!
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