For posterity: my thoughts on ANIMALS

My house was a zoo growing up, and I'm not just talking about my brother.  :)  My mom LOVES animals, and grew up with dogs and horses, so even on our humble little half-acre we always had LOTS of animals.  All the time.  Like, there was a time when we literally had 4 dogs, a dozen or so cats and kittens, a hedgehog, 3 geckos, 2 rabbits, 2 guinea pigs, 2 degus, and an aquarium of fish, ALL AT ONCE.  I don't even know how many dogs and cats we've had over the years (Mom bred collies for a while, and our cats always had kittens), but the total of animals was just HECKA LOT. 

Because of Mom, I like horses and dogs, too.  But because we had so many pets, the novelty of them has worn off.  I'm not in love with them.  I don't get uber excited about them.  I don't have the knack for caring for non-people living things like my sister does.  I kill plants.  I am sort of apathetic towards animals.  I prefer people.

That may explain the relationship I have with Paul's and my first dog, Obsidian.  We adopted her from a shelter almost a year ago now.  She was a year or so old when we got her, so we missed her adorable puppy years.  When we first had her, I was student teaching, and all she was to me was another little one to train, feed, clean up after, and keep me up at night (she barked ALL THE TIME!).  Now, though, since we spend so much time together, I have a love-hate relationship with her.  I try to love her, she bites or scratches and bruises me or abuses any trust I give her, I get angry, she tries to make it up by being adorable, all is forgiven and we start the cycle anew.  :)  But here are some things that I LOVE about Obi:

1. She loves peanut butter.  I give her the PB jars when we're done with them, after taking the paper and lid off, and let her go at it.  It's better than any chew toy and keeps her happy for literally HOURS.  It's actually really cute to see her hold down the jar and stick her snout all the way into it and breathe and fog up the thing.  Also, her tongue is REALLY long, and I never knew that before.  Other favorite foods of hers: mango, rice, bananas.  And whatever is on our plates for dinner.  As Paul's mom said, "Aw, she's Filipina!"





Obi with a jar of PB.



2. Obsidian (coolest name ever, BTW) knows the words "treat," "cage," "outside," "food," "water," "ball," "dinner's ready," "down," and her nickname, Obi.  She also knows the following tricks so far: sit, lay down (formerly "worship me!"), beg, dance, stay, come here, shake, crawl, kiss, and speak.  Sometimes, when Emilie's here, she remembers "How many is this?" when you hold up two fingers and she barks twice.  It's fun having her learn new tricks, especially when she performs for others.  Which she rarely ever does, so if you see it, consider yourself lucky.  :)



3. Even though she's 50+ pounds, she thinks she's a lap dog.  This is my favorite side of Obi, the curl-up-and-sleep-with-you sweetheart side.  I get that most of the day...'til Paul comes home.  Then playful, destructive, spoiled, back-talking, disobedient Obi comes out and I feel like pulling out all my hair.  But she really could be SO much worse.

 

Sleeping Obi.

So, when we went to go adopt a dog (on January 18), all the dogs were up on their hind legs and barking up a storm.  Not Obi.  She has this thing where she smushes herself up against the cage so you can pet her and looks up at you with these sad eyes even when her head is down (think of that scene in Bolt), and that was our first impression of her.  While I did agree to get this dog mostly for Paul's sake, I wanted her to be a sweetie since I was the one who would likely be taking care of her most of the time.  So she had me at hello.  But I was deceived!  While she certainly can be that sweet puppy I first fell in love with, 9 days out of 10 she's destroying something, jumping up on me and giving me scrapes and bruises, talking back to me (yes, she does that!), and pretending that I'm choking her as I drag her away to the cage.  Obi is part pig (I mean, just look at her!), part cat (she rubs up on our legs like a cat), part goat (she'll eat anything), and I forget what else.  But for all her faults and quirks, she's our first puppy, our first pet, and we think of her as sort of our first child.  (Albeit a very strong and energetic one!)  For that she will always be loved.  :)  We hope she lives long enough for our children to play with when they're young, but if not, I want Obi remembered as the first creature loved and raised by us.