The Ties That Bind

When my daughter Eva was born, I remember being so amazed at how quickly I could love her so completely. From the first time I saw her and touched her sticky newborn skin, I knew that my life would never be the same. I was reminded of The Grinch and felt that my “heart grew three sizes that day!”

I was worried in the days leading up to Eli’s birth that things might be different.  What if I didn’t immediately bond with him the way I had with Eva?  What if my life was already “full enough” and I wouldn’t be able to make room for him?  Luckily for him, the process repeated itself.  I loved him from the start, which made it a little bit easier to deal with his crankypants attitude in his early months of life.

Who knew that the same thing could happen with a dog?  We recently adopted Maisy, this beautiful three year old Sheltie mix.  A friend at church said something interesting before we adopted her, that having “outside dogs” was just not the same as having an “inside dog.”  I had outside dogs as a boy, but never a pet inside the house… well, other than fish and a gerbil.  She said that an inside dog quickly becomes a member of the family. I thought that this was just a cute way of referring to your pet.

I’ve realized however, that Maisy is essentially like a third child.  Thursday evening she started making this awful choking/coughing/hacking sound that was really horrible.  It can only be described as this “big piece of something painful stuck in the hroat” and I was truly afraid that she was going to die. She was so pitiful with her little sides convulsing so much with each cough. She wasn’t moving around much, and when she did it only produced worse fits of coughing.

In no time, we were scouring the Yellow Pages looking for some kind of after-hours emergency vet. Listening to her over the phone, the diagnosed her with Kennel Cough and made an appointment for the next day. In the meantime we were to give her Robitussin.

But there we were, ready to rush Maisy off to the emergency room just as we have with Eva (but surprisingly not with Eli… knock on wood).  Obviously, I’m not saying that I love Maisy as much as I love my kids.  I am saying that I’m surprised at how quickly and how deeply we’ve bonded with her as a member of the family.

Now if only I could wrap all of my children’s medicine in a piece of cheese and have them take it so easily…