The Pest

Our new puppy is the biggest pest my older two dogs have ever met, and I have to agree with them. No my dogs don't talk but I can see it in their eyes. Ziggy is only five months old and has more energy  than the energizer bunny on crack. His favorite one to pester is my boxer Ham.

Ham is a handsome stud of a dog. He is massive and thick and has the most gentle temperment of any male dog I have ever owned. (who still has his nuts:) His front legs are as big as my forearms and he weighs in at a muscular eighty solid pounds. He lets the other two dogs eat first, come in the house first and go out the door first. Ziggy  thinks he is a big ole chew toy and Ham lets him. Ham is blind in one eye and sometimes Ziggy catches him by surprise...I almost think Ziggy knows which is his bad eye. Every once in a while after about thirty minutes of non stop pestering, Ham will swat Ziggy back a few feet with one of his massive paws. Does that stop Ziggy? "That'd be a negative, Ghost Rider." Ziggy runs like a little deer with his long gangly legs and looks like a little black horse running in  the back yard. We're thinking about giving Ham a bone flavored medal for Christmas or changing his name to Patience or Job.

When he gets tired of pestering Ham he quickly moves on to my Bulldog, Charlie.

Charlie's not the sharpest tool in the shed by a long shot but we love the fat little guy. He's smart enough to stay away from Ziggy and hide in his man cave under my bed. When he comes out he is quickly pounced upon. Ziggy's favorite thing is to chew on Charlie's collar. (Ham wishes HE was that lucky) Ziggy has already  grown taller than Charlie, who is a low rider to put it mildly. Charlie's patience isn't as good as Ham's but they have both come around to  tolerate our little pest. That's right..."Ours."

He likes to pester all of us too. He's happy ALL the time. He's happy to see us walk in a room. HE'S happy to walk in a room. He's happy when you say his name, he's happy when you pet him and he's happy if you even just look his way. Biting is his speciality and we are all happy (including the other two dogs) that his teeth aren't as razor sharp anymore.

Yes I am an idiot, but I love these three dogs like nobody's business and in fact IS nobody elses business so I feel okay about it. Dogs just don't live long enough so I  get my dogs in stages so I will always have one. Ham is the oldest, already blind in one eye but hanging in there like a trooper. Charlie is close behind and Bullldogs are notorious for all kind of issues from hearing loss to skin allergies and obviously tiny brains.  Now we have Ziggy, who should be around to pester me well into my sixties.

Dogs are truly man's best friend.  I've owned a dog as long as I can remember and will have one until I am so demented I don't know what a dog is. They love you  unconditionally and totally. They know when you are sad and they know when you are mad. Heck...my husband can't even do  that! But he  doesn't poop on the carpet so I think I'll keep  him the longest.

 My older two dogs are totally house trained but Ziggy is definitely trying my patience.  He's almost there but best be glad that I raised four dogs and three kids in  this house before he came along. It's not a mansion and not a house that is spotless but is a house full of love and a house that cleans up pretty good when I have the time to do it.

 It's a house that has always been full of kids... yours, mine and theirs. I wouldn't have had it any other way. I can remember times when I had ten kids in my house for dinner and never thought a thing about it. I can remember when they broke windows in my house with baseballs or golf balls. Thank the Lord for double pane windows.  I can remember wrestling matches that tore bannisters off my hall steps and put holes in closet doors.  I still have a chandelier in my dining room with two missing panes (I moved them to the back side) because my oldest son stubbed his toe in the middle of the night getting up to go to  the restroom and kicked a boxing glove he had left on  the floor that flew up and hit it.

A house isn't a home until you let love, life and laughter make it one. I am lucky.

I live in a home!

Til next  time...COTTON