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All In A Mom-day's Work by Lucie Bouchard Antoniazzi PLEASE, MOMMY! PLEASE!! What mom hasn’t heard the phrase, “Please, Mommy! Please!!” uttered by her children? They always want something, don’t they? From activities, to sports gear, to toys, to clothes, to trips… it never ends. They never have enough! My kids’ latest request is a dog, a puppy actually, which, of course, will turn into a dog. My niece’s dog just had puppies – nine puppies! Of course my kids think that our home would be perfect for one of those puppies. Did I mention that these puppies are a mix of Husky, Chow Chow, Labrador, and German Shepherd, on their mom’s side, and Rottweiler and Labrador, on their dad’s side? These puppies will become BIG dogs! “We’ll walk it, and feed it, and take care of it!!!” they claim. “And who will scoop the poop?” I ask. Silence… “Who will take it to the vet, and pay for the food, and arrange for a sitter when we go on trips?” They all stare at me, unsure how to answer, sure that these are trick questions of some sort. I’ve been there before. They talked me into getting a kitten almost eight years ago when my niece’s cat had a litter. I made the mistake of taking the kids to my niece’s place for a visit when the kittens were five weeks old, just one week shy of being able to leave their mamma. A week later we were back to pick up Dusty, whom we’d all fallen in love with. Don’t get me wrong! I love my cat and, most days, I’m happy to have him, but the kids don’t take care of him. They don’t feed him, or clean out the litter box, or play with him. They pet him for a few seconds when they come home from school, and they worry about him if he runs off and doesn’t come home for a while, but they don’t do anything else. Rudy and I get to make sure he is fed and groomed. We clean out the stinking litter box. We take him to the vet and give him his meds. It’s like having a fourth child, only this one doesn’t even leave the house to go to school on weekdays – he’s there all the time! Plus, although the kids would love to have a puppy, our cat would hate it. He just doesn’t like other animals. He doesn’t allow any cats onto his territory – he runs them off if they try to visit. As for dogs, our yard is surrounded by dogs on all sides, and Dusty bickers at them all the time – yes, cats can bicker! So, my decision is made. No matter how much my kids plead, we are not getting a puppy. No one is talking me into another pet, especially not one who will have to be walked every day even when it is -35 degrees outside, which is about six months out of the year here. Just to be extra safe, I am steering clear of my niece’s house until all the puppies have been given away!
Lucie Bouchard Antoniazzi works from home as a technical writer and webmaster for a Montreal consulting/training firm. Her real passion is writing children’s fiction and non-fiction, which she does whenever time permits. Lucie lives with her husband, Rudy, and their three children in Laval, Quebec, Canada. Find out more about Lucie and her work by visiting her Web site at www.luciebouchardantoniazzi.com.
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