Category: Moms & Puppies

It’s Thursday night. My husband is working late. One son has been away on a class trip all week; due home tomorrow. The pups will get their surgery tomorrow and go to their forever homes on Saturday. They may stay at the shelter tomorrow night. This could be their last night with us.

I’m a pretty fortunate person to be in a position to foster these pups and help them grow up a little. I haven’t done it alone – the shelter staff are amazing, my neighbors and friends have come through for me in numerous ways, my boss is tolerant of my tardiness – but even so, it’s from a position of privilege that I’m able to ‘give’ for these animals.

I’ve been unusually quiet since it’s been unusually chaotic here. I can barely keep ahead of the pups latest tricks. Actually, I can’t. Yesterday, I went out to the car, realized I forgot my keys, came back into the house. As I grabbed the keys from the kitchen counter, I spotted something brown and furry in the corner. An escapee. What? How did that happen. As soon as the others heard me in the kitchen, they stormed the baby gate. 10 puppies rushed through the house.

If I had known last night was the last that Momster (Missy) would spend in our house, would I have done anything differently? Would I have given her an extra hug, fed her a dinner of steak and potatoes, covered her with my own comforter?

Ok, people. There are only 3 adorable puppies left. Your perfect dog could be, right this minute, sound asleep in my laundry room. Act now. For a limited time only – puppies!

Do you ever have those moments of serenity? Wishing you could freeze time and live out your days in this configuration of people and events and animals? I had one of those tonight. My family is pretty settled right now in their school/sports/work lives. I’m having an adventure that I never thought I’d get to have. It’s good here.

Today, we took Charlie and Momster to a fenced-in field. They had a blast! Momster had her nose to the ground or in the air the whole time. She leaped through the tall grass and her little stump of a tail was in constant motion. She was so happy to be off-leash and free.

Little Emma was just too wound up to sleep. She was keeping everyone else awake with her insistence that they could surely play for just one more hour.

The pups were on their best behavior today. Those adopted, spent the day at the animal shelter with their new families. The other 4 went to an adoption event at Petco. Einstein got adopted!

My whole family is sick. My husband has pneumonia; my kids have bad colds; I’ve got some version of some gunky thing. But life goes on as it must with animals. I literally slogged through the day today, from one chore to the next.