I have always been a cat person at heart, but ever since my dad had Golden Retrievers I’ve had a soft spot in my heart for them as well. When Tom wanted to get a dog, we both agreed that a golden would be great—except for all the hair! After all, we have four cats that shed—we didn’t really want a dog that shed that much. So, we ended up with Maggie…and she’s perfect.
But I digress.
Our friends Tom and Karen have a lab/boxer mix that Maggie just LOVES to play with. We often take her over for a play date, and they’ve also babysat Maggie twice now when we had to leave town. Well, this past weekend it was our turn to babysit Venus at our house.
We have just one word to say: WOW.
Where to begin?
Those two had SO much fun and played SO hard that, other than putting them in the crate to sleep at night, the first time they took a nap was Saturday at 3! Unfortunately, it only lasted until 3:30 when Tom opened the garage door and they both woke up and started playing again. And I should mention that Maggie generally is a pest—she is constantly bugging Venus, either by biting her legs, trying to bite her tongue, or just generally pawing at her to get her attention (in short, a true little sister). Venus is very good with her and takes all that she dishes out, although a few times she tried to get away by laying between me and Tom. (We also put Maggie in her crate once when Venus seemed to be getting annoyed.) They are just so totally cute to watch…
These interlocking rings are the best!! Venus actually had them and Maggie loved them so much we bought her a set of her own…just in time for Venus to come over and play! For awhile Sunday afternoon, they were racing around the living room, down the hall, downstairs, then back upstairs, around the ottoman, then back down the hall…repeat ad nauseum. If Venus wasn’t on Maggie’s heels, Maggie would stop, turn around with the rings hanging from her mouth, and wait for Venus to follow…which she inevitably did!
Unfortunately, Maggie was sooooo sad when Venus went home. She spent the first 10 minutes looking for her (looking in the room where her crate had been, looking in the other rooms, looking out the window) and then grabbed their favorite play toy (the two interlocked rings) and crashed on the couch, looking the most sad and dejected I’ve ever seen her:
Poooooor little Maggie. Seeing her that sad and pathetic almost made US cry! Of course, we’d love to get another Boston Terrier, but six animals??? Egads.
All that aside, Venus is a handful. Tom would know how much she weighs, but I can barely keep hold of her, and if she wants to come inside there’s really no stopping her (I don’t know how Karen does it). And big dogs slobber. A lot. And maybe Venus is just messier than other dogs, but when she drinks, she manages to drip all over the floor as she walks away. I about broke my neck one time as I walked across the kitchen floor, hit a puddle of water, and my feet slipped out from under me and I came crashing down onto the tile. And this was just after I had dried of the floor two minutes before.
We love Venus and welcome her back…but babysitting her has definitely (DEFINITELY!) taught us that we are small dog people…