Puppy Love

Our backyard is not completely fenced and occasionally a stray dog pays us a visit. We’ve never had a dog, so the kids get very excited when one stops by. Not a dog person, Unnamed Husband is usually annoyed and chases our canine visitors away.

Tuesday morning amidst our usual chaos, a dog was in our backyard drinking out of our fountain. We noticed this when our 3-year old, David went outside in his pjs. We wrangle David back inside and the dog disappeared. Or so we thought.

That night as we tuck Claire in her bed she says, “I really want a puppy. I want to ask Santa for one but God might tell Santa that I already have a cat. I’m going to pray that God lets me have a puppy.”

As we walk out I think to myself, God’s the least of your problems. You need to work on your dad.

The next morning, Unnamed Husband brought the older two kids to school and stopped back by to pick something up before heading to work. Once our sitter arrived, I kiss the twins goodbye and head out the door. I’m backing out the driveway when I notice David chasing me down the driveway. I roll my passenger window down to tell him to go back inside and he jumps on my running board. As I put my car in park, my neighbor approaches me and tells me that he thinks there is a cat stuck under my house.

Confused, I grab David and follow my neighbor to the side of my house where he heard the “trapped cat.” Just as we round the side of my house, I see the same dog run from underneath the house. I look towards the house and spot a heap of puppies on the ground.

One, two, three, four, five, six, seven. Seven tiny newborns are piled on top of each other in a nest of leaves. The precious little pups look surprisingly healthy despite their homelessness. The momma dog continues to bark at us as we head back to the front of the house to break the news to Unnamed Husband.

“Daddy, you gotta see dis!” David says. I couldn’t contain my laughter as we walk him back to the puppy village. We point to our latest additions and Unnamed Husband’s eyes swell with fear.

“What are we going to do?”

“We’re going to get the mom some food and water,” I said.

“Of course we are,” he says, sarcasm seeping through every pore in his body.

When Claire and Edwin return from school and discover the puppies, they are overjoyed. Claire proclaims, “I asked God for a puppy last night, so he must really want me to have one.”

“Yes Claire, he must.”

And so begins our canine adventure.