Saturday, February 16, 2008

Bad Parents Already?

I could think of many reasons and excuses why it happened. I mean, there’s a baby on the way, we’re busy almost every evening, it’s winter and my brain doesn’t work as well…but they are all just excuses for what we did…

We forgot our babies’ birthday. No, not Little Major, our babies that we had long before Little Major was even a thought in our minds. Rerun and Lucy turned 6 on February 1, and we completely forgot.

I know not everyone loves dogs, or pets for that matter, but our dogs (or puppies as we still call them) are pretty important to us. When The Colonel and I started dating, I had a mini schnauzer named Linus. My roomie Agnes and I got litter mates shortly after we moved in together. And we loved our puppies, a lot! Agnes was the BEST roomie ever because while I was all ga-ga over The Colonel, she picked up the slack and took care of Linus for me. Eventually, The Colonel came out of his shell and started hanging out at our house some, and he fell in love with Linus and Nala (Agnes’ puppy). And that made me fall in love with him a little more.

He would wrestle and play and love on the dogs, and they loved him for it! Unfortunately, we lost Linus a year after we got married, when he got out and was hit by a car. We were devastated, and we remained dog free for a few months until we moved back to California.

Here's Linus...


And then…we got Rerun and Lucy. Since Agnes had been with me when I picked out Linus, she went with me to look at the new puppies, too. They were about 3 or 4 weeks old the first time we saw them. And they were SO cute. The Colonel and I went to pick them up and bring them home when they were 6 weeks old.



We decided on 2 dogs so that they would have playmates when we weren’t around. They love each other like siblings, they play like siblings, and they even snip at each other like siblings. And we’ve celebrated their birthdays with them EVERY year, except this one.



I think it was about February 6 when I realized that we’d forgotten. I never understood how in Sixteen Candles, the parents could have forgotten their kid’s birthday, but I get it now. It IS possible.

And please, no comments about how this is just the tip of the ice berg, and the dogs will become less and less important as Little Major worms his way into our lives. Yes, a child is more important than a dog, but we love our dogs very much, and we are going to try to make these life changes be as seamless as possible for everyone. The dogs were here first, and our home is their home, so we will figure out how to make it work for everyone.



But, I pray that we get our heads screwed on right pretty soon, and that we stop forgetting important things…I don’t want to start out labeled as a bad parent! =)

8 comments:

Sunshine said...

Our puppy turned 1 last Saturday and our youngest daughter turned 4 on Sunday. I put up birthday pictures of our "girls" having their party together!

Don't worry, when the kids are old enough to know the dogs' birthday, they won't let you forget!!

Jayme said...

so what did you do when you realized you forgot? Did they get a late treat???

Terry said...

I love that they are all named after the Peanuts Gang. I agree with Sunshine, when the Little Major gets old enough, the puppies will be very important to him too!

maddie said...

awww...don't worry. i'm sure the puppies understand. as long as you give the constant love and support that you always have, everything will be just fine. and knowing you, i know the puppies won't loose their place in the family once little major arrives!! :)

Sally said...

You mean I should have done something when I realized I forgot their birthdays?? =) Actually, I loved on them for a while when I realized it, but they get plenty of treats already so there weren't any extras.

Terry - all my dogs have been named after Peanuts characters. The one I had growing up was named Schroeder.

Chelf said...

All of these names make "Sally" make more sense to me... ha ha ha.

And I have a friend in Albuquerque who has a Scottish Terrier named Charlie Brown. He looks at me all the time we are there. Stares at me like he is trying to figure me out. He knows my mom (she visits that friend so much, the guest room is "Teri's room"), and seems to know I am related, but NOT my mom. He is good dog.

suezque said...

Well if you're bad parents we must be terrible parents because we don't even know when our puppies were born! (both adopted from shleters)And I'd have to look it up to tell you what days we got them- I know Jonah was in May, and Oreo in August. But we love our puppies, and do spoil them rotten! :-) G had to run to work last night, and he took my car just so the puppies could go for a ride!

Love Bears All Things said...

Since I got Smokey at the shelter, I don't really know his Birthdate. He was around 5 months old when I got him January 2006, I celebrated at the end of June.
Mama Bear