All Those Children Getting Kidnapped.....

I love dogs. Every few years I get a real itch to add one to my family (I do feel a little trashy admitting that after reading one of Jessica Crapos latest posts - I guess it would mean an end to taking food to neighbors. ;). The last time I started seriously looking into a dog we ended up getting Max. Technically I had a dog until a couple months ago. I adopted a great little Black Lab named Maggie from the pound when I was 19. She replaced a lousy boyfriend. She was the perfect dog: mild, affectionate, a good leash walker, pretty. She did have one little problem. She liked to step in her poop. Most dogs have a natural aversion to their own waste, somehow Maggie was missing that. Anyway, she would step in her poop and then when she was excited to see you she would jump......enough said I guess. Maggie stayed with my parents when I got married, and she died a couple months ago when I was home over Thanksgiving. Anyway, this post isn't really about Maggie. It's about me wanting a dog right now. So, I've been preparing as well as I can - I've been reading some books by the "Dog Whisperer" Ceasar Millan. They are the best parenting books I have EVER read. I'll probably do another post about that sometime. So, I decided to start checking out dogs and the kids and I went to an "adoption" at Petsmart the other day. The woman who was in charge starting talking to me. She was passionate about the dog rescue work she does. She told me how long she'd been involved, how many dogs she had rescued, and a few stories about particularly interesting cases. Then she began telling me about how good it is for families and children to have canine companions. Her main point was safety and protection. "A dog is better than a gun," she said. Then she moved very close to me, so our shoulders were touching, leaned her head in so that our heads were nearly touching, covered her mouth with her hand and lowered her voice (we were in Petmart remember). She said "I've done some research. You know all those kids in California and Texas and......that keep getting kidnapped. ALL of their families had CATS!!" It was all I could do to keep my face as serious as her, and solemnly whisper "oh." There you have it - if every family had a dog there would be no more missing kids.

As a note, I wish not to offend cat lovers, if you like 'em, good for you.

Here's a couple examples that lead me to believe that show me my kids would do just fine with a pet.

Milking a Cow

Riding a Pig
Hugging a Bear
Riding a Horse