Strollerderby

Adam (10 months) and Fitz (our 11 year old, bowlegged, overweight, suspected chain smoking, narcoleptic housecat) have an interesting relationship. Whereas Fitz used to crouch, hiss, then waddle from the room when Jack (4 years) was the one pulling himself around the house like the Sean Connery death scene at the end of The Untouchables, for some reason now that it's Adam forearm dragging himself across the linoleum Fitz actually approaches and lies down next to him. If that was it I'd say maybe Jack broke him in for Adam, but Adam will then bury his hands deep into Fitz's coat and yank out handfuls of matted fur. Not just a couple strands mind you, but so much hair that his pudgy fingers look like someone dropped breakfast sausages on the floor of a barber shop.

The other day Kathleen and I walked in the back room to find Adam apparently administering CPR to Fitz. He was propped up with both hands on Fitz's chest bouncing up and down like a hobbit doing push-ups on a coon skin cap. We laughed until Adam tried to give him mouth-to-mouth then shot us a look that suggested "Don't just stand there! Clamp the aorta and give me 20 cc's of plasma stat." Kathleen scooped Adam up while I was left to check Fitz's vitals. Though he survived the ordeal I keep finding cigarette butts on the front porch.

I have three dogs and they each have their own unique relationships with my almost 3 year old daughter.  The oldest considers himself her protector and when she was a baby, would immediately alert us to the fact that she was crying.  You know, in case we couldn't hear her.  Now that she's older they play chase, the dog always sure to stay *just* out of grabbing range.  My 2 year old dog will lay in the kid-sized chair for hours (normally he's a very active dog) and she will "read" to him.  He is also the one who I imagine would let her dress him up without a complaint, as he would honestly let her do ANYTHING to him.  She likes to lay on the floor next to him and use him as a pillow.  The 1 year old dog would love to just hold her down and lick her to death, but the child will have nothing to do with that.  But they have found a special bond over food...the toddler doesn't like most food, and the dog delightedly DOES.  So whenever the child is looking to rid herself of something she doesn't wish to eat, she goes looking for the garbage disposal dog.

Actually, it depends on the cat. Our cat loves everything, and he'll take any amount of accidental abuse from the 8 month old if it remotely resembles petting. He was ecstatic when we had a baby.

This brings tears to my eyes.  Our 14 year old dog, Max, died yesterday.  We got him before we ever had children.

We were a little nervous how he'd take to a baby.  But the day we brought our daughter home, it was instant love for both of them.  He watched over her, ran to us if she was crying, and God forbid if we should take her to grandma's and return without her.  He'd glare at us, like "Where's my baby???"

He was much older when our son came along, but still protective, choosing to sleep outside their rooms almost every night.  Even when arthritis made him very sore, he was very tolerant if one of the kids accidentally bumped into him.

My kids are heartbroken, as we all are.  But we have so many cherished memories of him, we were blessed to have him in our lives.