Food, part 2, and how much I love my dogs..

Grocery store run over! I'm so proud of my usually picky self. I went in with more of the attitude "If it looks remotely appetizing, I'm buying it...as long as it's not terribly expensive". I came back with lots of goodies: Sour Cream & Chedder Ruffles (which I'm currently snacking on), Keebler Cheddar snack crackers, 2 bananas, cups of diced pears, dried pineapple, Kellogg's Corn Pops, Toaster Streudel (raspberry), cookies, blueberry muffin mix, cranberry orange muffin mix, monterey jack cheese, crackers, cheddar popcorn... I see a trend of snack foods and breakfast foods, but I don't care. I'm just happy I bought FOOD, and am debating on what to eat first (everything!!).

So, I know everyone says that once you have a kid, your pets will take second place to the kid, but I've had a few thoughts/revelations about my love for my dogs. (The cat? Eh, yeah, I love him, but STOP PEEING ON THE CARPET! Despite that, we'd never get rid of him, although I've sworn off getting any future cats.) And maybe most of you have heard me talk about this stuff before, but I wanted to record it for posterity.

Bringing home Marshmellow from her foster home almost a year ago, I was afraid I'd never love her as much as I love Phoenix. See, we've had Phoenix since he was 9 months old, back in 2001. We'd fostered a dog before, in 2002, but Phoenix was a bit too young, and perhaps having two male dogs was not the best idea. So, I had seen this cute little deaf girl online (long story short, after I saw and visited a deaf white boxer at the Baltimore SPCA last fall, and hesitated to apply for her, she was adopted. I never forgot how sweet that girl was!) and this dog stayed up for adoption for about a month when I finally broke down and applied for her. Not thinking it would happen so fast, about a week later, we were driving to PA to pick her up from her foster home! They had many applications for her, but none of the homes were "just right" - but ours was!

I was so nervous, as was she, but I couldn't take my eyes off her. She wasn't as "good looking" as the previous white boxer I had looked at, but she was unique - one blue eye, one brown eye, and lots of her skin spots show through her short white fur. Some would consider her ugly, and I do admit, she's not very photogenic, but she's way cute in person.

But, I didn't fall in love with her right away. I guess I was still nervous, hoping that she would fit in with Phoenix. And she had lots of accidents in the house (which thankfully are very few and far between now... maybe one every month or two...down from several a day!) I was uncertain that I could communicate with her. Then one day, while a friend of mine was leaving our house, she snuck past our legs and bolted out the front door. I've never known fear like I did that day. How do you get a deaf dog back? Well, you run after her like hell, while your friend tries to anticipate where she'll run next. We did manage to catch her, only feet from the busy road right by our house, where cars like to drive about 50 mph. Completely out of breath, my friend literally carried her back into our house, where we sat panting, just looking at each other saying, "That SUCKED!" while she ran around the house like nothing happened. I wanted to cry and hold her and never let her go.

Since that day, I've been the over-protective mom, and I've found more and more room in my heart for her and Phoenix everyday, and always want to hug and kiss them. I worry about when we go into labor - who's going to watch them? Are they going to know how over-protective I am of my deaf girl? I honestly don't trust anyone to watch them anymore, because of her. I don't want her to get loose, and no one (not even Don) knows what it was like to fear for her running out into the middle of the road, and you're not able to call her back.

So, I'm working on a plan to get them into a kennel when I go into labor, so I don't have to worry about them, or having someone in our house to watch them. But, how do we get them TO the kennel? Just take them on the way to the hospital? Well, that's not practical!

All this worrying makes me realize that maybe I won't love my kid the second I meet him/her (though I probably will), but I'll grow to love that kid more than anything...well, maybe just as much as the dogs and Don. And maybe I will become an over-protective mom with the kid. But as long as the kid's not deaf, I probably still won't panic as much as I do every time someone opens our front door, and I'm not holding on tight to Marshmellow. :-)