Welch Whirl

Hey Dawg!

I've always considered myself an animal person, or dog person to be specific, at least that is until I had my first child. Wiley has taken the place of any dog desires. I used to have dreams of a large honey colored lab. But that was all before I discovered that dogs still scare me and carry with them the Heebie Geebies. Yes, that is right, I don't want my kids to touch dogs due to what they pass around. Hey who wants to hang out with a dog that licks itself?

I'm not a fan of small yippy dogs. In fact, some neighbors have one and when I'm over there I can't bring my self to even touch the dog, even when it hops on my lap, I have strong desires to kick it, and I truly don't think I'm that violent of a person, but yes, kicking is the right word.

Why might I have these feelings? Are dogs really that dirty, stinky, noisy?

Well, truthfully, I have plenty of examples of the nasty sort of dogs. I don't like the hair or the smell that comes with dogs, and most dogs just reaffirm this feeling. Well, Little Lucy Lou has just joined the family and she is none of those things. She is cute, cuddly, she doesn't stink, she is hypoallergenic, she doesn't yip. She loves my kids. The only urge I have is to hold and love it, rather than putting on my largest boot to kick. I don't even care if my kids hold her. What's great is that she doesn't lick herself either, because Lauren and Shane have special wipes to clean her up after she does her business.

She is perfect. . . she might even be a better version of a child. She follows you around, doesn't complain, she is obedient. . . you can see where I'm going with this.

The only problem with animals is that they don't live long under the watchful eye of the Dyer clan. I can't tell you how many pets we have buried at the various houses we've lived in. But I can tell you it has been quite a few and with five children wanting their own pet, we've also had quite a variety. (2 Tortoises, 2 parrots, many hamsters, lots of fish, tons of cats, two dogs, a hermit crab, various lizards, two snails, (once they ate through my mom's copy of "The Miracle of Forgiveness" I gave them to a neighbor. . . ) and I'm sure there was even more than this but this is all I can remember for now. We basically are running a pet cemetery. You might even call us morticians. My own father being the biggest killer as well as the one to have dug the most graves, and given the bad news of his most recent slaughter. . . but those stories are for another day.