{"id":1196,"date":"2013-02-18T06:00:18","date_gmt":"2013-02-18T14:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/morningnewsinverse.com\/?p=1196"},"modified":"2013-02-18T07:29:49","modified_gmt":"2013-02-18T15:29:49","slug":"dreams-and-schemes-and-puppy-dog-tails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/?p=1196","title":{"rendered":"“THE BOY”"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"2013-02-17<\/a>\u00a0Every dog should have a boy….<\/i>\u00a0 Erma Bombeck.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0I’m sure Ms. Bombeck had a freckle-faced 10-year-old boy in mind when she wrote that. \u00a0At our house “the boy” is almost 72 years old. \u00a0But it seems that some things are timeless and not bound by the limits of age.<\/p>\n

I should point out that “the boy” has resisted my attempts to get a dog for the past 25 years. \u00a0Every broach of the subject was met with groans, moans and 87 reasons why we shouldn’t get a dog. \u00a0Over many of those years he had a point – we were both working long hours, we traveled a lot, we had white carpeting.<\/p>\n

But last summer our kids went on vacation and we offered to dog sit. \u00a0 When he thought I wasn’t looking, “the boy” would give the dog treats. \u00a0And he was perfectly content to sit on the couch with the dog right next to him watching golf tournaments on TV. \u00a0Over the course of ten days the dog learned all about lip-outs, soft fades and why Tiger Woods will never win another major.<\/p>\n

So, as you faithful readers know (and we do thank you for your subscription!), “the boy” was finally worn down enough by last fall that the moans and groans were uttered with less conviction. \u00a0I pounced on the opportunity and put a down payment on a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. \u00a0He was born in November and we named him “Dash”. \u00a0We were finally able to bring him home two weeks ago. \u00a0That’s when life in the Watson house changed. Forever.<\/p>\n

Before Dash came home, “the boy” wanted it made perfectly clear that I was going to be totally responsible for all feeding, training and (this is critical) poop patrol. \u00a0Dash was going to be tolerated and allowed to live with us just to keep me happy. \u00a0Yeah, right.<\/p>\n

Within 48 hours it became clear that Dash was going to belong to “the boy”. \u00a0He didn’t want to leave the house for fear the dog would miss him. \u00a0He admonished me for washing Dash’s face with a bit too much pressure. \u00a0He got a big stick to take outside to the dog run just in case any wild animal ventured near. \u00a0And the baby talk? \u00a0Here’s the best example I can provide: \u00a0one week after Dash came home “the boy” was watching hockey while Dash and I were in my office watching something educational, like “The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills”. \u00a0When I decided to retire, I took Dash and walked into the family room to say good night. \u00a0“The boy” jumped<\/em>\u00a0up from his chair, came over to us and starting petting and cooing …”oh, I love you soooo much”, “good-night little sweetheart”, etc. …. to the DOG. \u00a0He has not jumped up out of a chair like that for me in 20 years.<\/p>\n

So now, after 25 years of wanting a dog, I have to fight for equal time. \u00a0At best, “the boy” and I sit on the couch with Dash in between us. \u00a0Life is very good at those moments. \u00a0And truthfully, I love seeing “the boy” so enamored with Dash. \u00a0Dash has brought us a lot of love and I’m sure has lowered our blood pressure by several points.<\/p>\n

However, I should stipulate that “the boy” is not so enamoured that he has picked up poop. \u00a0Somehow, that is still my responsibility.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0Every dog should have a boy….\u00a0 Erma Bombeck.\u00a0 \u00a0I’m sure Ms. Bombeck had a freckle-faced 10-year-old boy in mind when she wrote that. \u00a0At our house “the boy” is almost 72 years old. \u00a0But it seems that some things are … read more<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[122,200,222,880],"class_list":["post-1196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-opinion","tag-cavalier-king-charles-spaniel","tag-dogs","tag-erma-bombeck","tag-pga-golf"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p31aN0-ji","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1196"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1198,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1196\/revisions\/1198"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fromabirdseyeview.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}