the jenni chronicles

When I first got my dog Cody, I knew it would be a lot of work. A lot of people will tell you that having a dog is a lot like raising a child. In fact a lot of therapists tell couples to buy a dog before having children as a test of their willingness to be a parent! I would have to agree that raising Cody is a lot like having a kid. This week has tested my spirit though, and now I am second guessing my ability to be a good parent…to a human.

Since we moved to the Wash Park area Cody has taken a liking to a certain delicacy that only a dog could stomach…goose poop. Its all over the park because of the Canadian goose population living at the lake…see my pics if you don’t know what I mean. As much as I try and keep him from gobbling up these goodies, he still manages to eat a few when I’m not paying attention. Sometimes he will get sick because of it, and has been on antibiotics for an intestinal infection due to eating goose/duck poo.

After our trip to the high mountain lake last weekend Cody became sick (as a dog). We are thinking because he was randomly eating mysterious things from the ground…most likely culprit; duck poop. Dammit!

And so begins the sick dog routine:
• Be prepared to clean up messes- must have carpet cleaner and strong stomach.
• Be prepared to go outside at any moment- including throughout the night.
• Take away regular food and replace with rice, chicken broth and boiled chicken.
• Walk dog in areas with no one around to see you ignore the puddles your dog left.
• Keep one eye open as you try to get at least two hours of sleep
• Yell at boyfriend for no apparent reason
• Wish death on whoever decided on a house with no yard
• Call in sick for a half day to catch up on the three nights in a row of no sleep.
• Hope to hell you never have children

What? Did I say that?
I did…oh my god!!! What kind of mother would I ever amount to if I can’t even handle taking care of a sick dog???? I was a raving bitch by day two of being up all night with him. I yelled at Rugby Dude, I yelled at Cody, I actually said OUTLOUD “we are never having children” as I crawled back into bed after only a couple hours of sleep.

What an awful person I am! It isn’t Cody’s fault he is sick…I mean he’s just a dog. How can I hold it against him? How come I don’t have any patience with these things? How am I ever supposed to raise two kids like I want to (hopefully by the time I am 40 for the love of god) when I fly off the handle at my dog?
It is seriously making me question myself. How do I change the way I react to stress?

Ugh…

This morning things were looking up. It is day four of the sickness and he even let us sleep through the night without waking us up once. I left the door to our bedroom open and he came wandering in at about 6:30 this morning for his usual face and butt scratch and then he just lay down like it was a normal day.

Sigh…I will learn from this and hopefully next time I will be able to react differently, a kinder, gentler Jenni.
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(¸.•´ (¸.•´ .•´ ¸¸.•¨¯`•. jenni