My third child
Most people think I only have two children. While this is, technically, true (I have only
BIRTHED two children), I actually have three
“children”.
My daughter & son are my pride & joy (even on days
when they drive me nuts), but “child” #3 has been with me longer than the
others, is actually older than I am, has gotten thick around the middle, can
clear a room when he passes gas & is covered in a fine coat of brown &
black fur. No…. I am not referring to my
husband. I’m talking about my 10 yr old
Boxer dog, Rex; my pal.
Rex is, in many ways, a girl’s best friend: he always listens when you talk, keeps you
safe, loves to snuggle & is happy to let you slide your ice-cold toes under
him, and has no problem telling you when he disagrees with your decision (if it
is for your own good). In real
terms: he is loving & loyal,
fiercely protective, opinionated… yeah… he’s a grouchy old man! We rescued the Old Fart (aka: The Beast,
Mutt, Old Man, actually we rarely call him “Rex”!) from one of my husband’s
relatives. Her ex-husband had purchased
Rex as a peace offering for her 12 year old son- without first discussing it
with her. So… roughly 6 months later, we
inherited an adorable, 8.5 month-old brindle boxer puppy with big, floppy ears
& more energy than you could describe!
So! I am dedicating a
portion of my blog to “Child #3”: My
dog, Rex. Below are a couple of short
stories about our adventures with the Beast!
The Kong
Shortly after Rex came to live with us, we started noticing
that he was getting bored during the day.
We blocked him off in our kitchen, thinking he would have few things to
destroy in this mostly barren room. Boy! Were we wrong!
My husband and I had moved into our home a month or two
before getting Rex. We had just made our
first “big” purchase for our home: A
little drop-leaf table & four chairs for our kitchen. During the day, we dropped one of the leaves,
pushed the table to the wall & made more room for The Beast.
My mother had just gotten me a new CD; one of those Starbuck’s
specials: a collection of Nat King
Cole!! Oh! I was SO excited to get it! I left for work that morning, leaving the NKC
cd on the new kitchen table, pushed all the way to the back. Work was work; the day went by & I came
home.
When I walked into the kitchen, I was greeted with quite a
sight: Cellophane was everywhere, along
with tiny bits of hard plastic. “What
the heck did you get into, Rex???” I asked, both ticked off and concerned. Then, I saw the cd. Good ol’ Nat King Cole. It was broken into multiple pieces, and a
portion of it seemed to be missing. “Rex!!!” Well… that’s a cd I’ll never get to
hear! Just when I started to get good
and ticked off, I noticed blood on the corner of the cd. Great!
The darned dog has cut himself chewing on it, and if he ATE the cd he
could be bleeding internally.
I called the vet, and they got us in right away.
When I told the vet what happened, he laughed, “Wow! That’s a new one! I’ve heard of dogs eating all number of
things, but never yet a cd!”
So! A full set of
x-rays (and the monstrous vet bill that comes with that mess) later, my crazy
pooch was declared healthy. I went away
with three valuable lessons from my vet:
- Dogs are garbage cans; they can eat & process almost anything. Keep it out of reach if you don’t want it to disappear.
- Boxer puppies are destructive when bored: Buy a kong & fill it with peanut butter.
- Rex is not a fan of Nat King Cole!
We bought a kong and lots of peanut butter the very next day, and I only listen to Nat King Cole at Christmastime. :-)
lol Aww Rex! My dog Scout used to get in to EVERYTHING. I'd return from work to find a shoe chewed up, and I wound up with about a dozen shoes with no match. I got used to coming in and scolding him. One day I came home and my leather jacket was in the middle of the floor chewed on. I was livid and started to yell at him until I saw that my other dog, the innocent little Bichon who NEVER does anything wrong, had a little piece of leather still hanging out of her mouth. Busted!
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