The (ok, I admit it) jealousy that Cowboy has his own "personal" dog.
It was too much. I snapped.
Let me get this off my chest:
Friends were heading to Texas over Christmas. These same friends have family down there who just happen to be breeders of Australian Shepherds...who just happened to have a couple of female pups left out of a litter.
"Do you want a pup?" Cowboy asked.
I think my reply was something along the lines of.. "I don't know." {Except it was in the Hoosier farm kid variation of the phrase --- which is a shrug accompanied with a closed mouth, say it in your throat kind of humming -- "mmmMMMmmm." Really hard to explain.}
While my adult mouth was shut, the little kid who still lives in me was shouting in my head: "Of course I want a pup! I want every pup!"
The adult in me was shouting even louder in my head: "Are you crazy? Are you ready for the commitment that it takes? 10 years! At least! Weeks of house-training! The major clean-ups that take place after messes. Walking around the backyard at 3am saying, "would you just go already!" Teaching a pup how to survive around tractors, trucks, cows and horses. Training her not to chase the chickens and cats and not to bark at the goats."
"F & H said they would bring a pup back with them when they come back," he informed. Was he trying to persuade me? It was working.
"Have F send me a picture."
In 0.68 seconds I had a picture of each pup and pictures of their mom and dad. Oh yeah, and a video of the pups romping in their kennel.
Awwwwww
One piqued my interest....
She didn't have the typical white on her face and she wasn't fuzzy. Just something about her...her eagerness, her friendliness. Something. {Is it possible to gather all that from a picture and a video?...well, apparently.}
I said, "Yes. I want that pup with the white chest."
A week later she arrived on our doorstep....
a sweet, wack-o bundle of energy.... who looks nothing like what I wanted. See? No white on her face. Her ears are considered a "serious flaw" in the breed. Her coat isn't fuzzy like Aussie Pup's.
What's worse is:
She's in the puppy-equivalent to the terrible-two stage.... but like terrible-two with ADD. She can sit in one place for 7.72 seconds. She constantly moves around: the floor to the couch to the pillow to the foot stool to the rug ... and then all over again. She goes through the trash, chases and sometimes catches the chickens. She chews chunks of wood, walnuts, rocks and sticks. She runs from me when I say, "Come." She runs past me when I call her to stand next to me. She steals socks from the laundry basket and runs from me when I try to take them from her. She ignores me when I call her. She ventures where she's not allowed....like up the stairs... 27 times a day! She barks in the night to be let out only to smell stuff.....
oh, let's talk about this one.....
It has become completely obvious that Cowboy has something wrong with his hearing. He can hear the roar of a tractor, bulldozer, chainsaw or semi from a mile away. He can hear a coon hound bark in the woods while we're in the house watching tv. He awakes from a deep sleep when he hears a cow mooing in the far pasture. But he CANNOT hear the puppy barking in the night 2 rooms away. Should I call the doctor?
Back to my pup....
She bites whatever is at mouth level. She relentlessly wrestles with Aussie Pup. She snores. She digs food out of her bowl like she's digging to China. She's afraid of the dark and of strange noises. She's clumsy and awkward.
She's overly affectionate. She has great potential.
I'm calling her Rose. My "personal" dog.
