lambscapearchitect: doggone it

When Eloise was 2 she started asking for a dog. I thought of an age that seemed like an eternity away and told her she could get a dog when she turns 6. If you think she has maybe forgotten that promise, think again. She pretty much brings it up every day. She has researched, with the help of her dog-loving aunts, what breed she would like to have. She has started countless sentences with, "When I'm six and I get my dog...". Whenever she draws a picture of herself petting a dog she tells me she must be 6 in this picture because, see, she has a dog of her own.

Don't get me wrong. I love dogs. We had dogs growing up and I really do want a dog... someday. I hope that when her 6th birthday comes I'll be a little more ready to welcome a huge, lovable, responsibility into our home.

Until we get the real thing, we'll continue to love the current dogs in our house--Commander Flufferton and Wags. We received Commander as a gift when I found out I was pregnant with Eloise. Mike named him, we both fell in love with him and when Eloise was born, the two of them became inseparable. (Just so you know, I do realize I am talking about a stuffed animal in case you felt like you needed to call somebody on my behalf because I had finally lost it).

Commander has been everywhere with Eloise, sleeps with her every night, and has never let her down when she needed him at the doctor's office or during a particularly scary Blues Clues. She has taught him numerous tricks, taken him for walks (drags), read him hundreds of stories, and when he isn't allowed to go somewhere she takes photos to show him upon her return. She has made up his entire life story including his family lineage, his likes and dislikes, and some jokes that he finds particularly funny. It is true love. I don't know what we would do if anything ever happened to him. Please, don't let anything ever happen to him!

Wags was a gift from a very, very dear friend, Marie Vogt. Eloise took a liking to him while visiting her house in Toledo one evening. The next morning she brought him over to my parents house where we were staying, set him on the front steps, rang the doorbell and watched from a distance as Eloise discovered another new friend. Precious.

If Eloise is half as caring and loving and attentive to a real dog as she is to her toy dogs then I think we'll be okay when the time comes. It is going to be here before we know it and I don't think I'm going to be able to get out of this one.