Wednesday, January 27, 2010

runnin' wild

Every now and then, at the constant begging and pleading of our children, John and I toy with the notion of getting a puppy. I always joked that I'd never even consider it until we reached the point in our lives when there were no more diapers. Sadly enough that time is near.
Last night I found myself browsing through pictures of cute little puppies waiting to be adopted through our local animal protection league. I even went so far as to google various aspects of puppy training, which dogs don't shed, good with children etc. I came across one site that went into great detail about how to properly train dogs, walk dogs, etc. It stressed that dogs are pack animals and have an instinctive desire to walk/run. Apparently letting them out to do their business in the yard is not enough, you have to walk them regularly or it will affect their behavior.

Hmmmm. Sounds very much like the wild kids I'm raising around here. You see, I've not had the chance to "walk" them properly as of late, and they're growing restless. For the last several nights they've been running laps through the house like...yep, you guessed it...a pack of wild dogs. My mom stopped over this evening in the middle of their "pack run," and found not one, but 7 of the youngest just running...and running, and running..single file down the front hall, through the kitchen & family room, back down the hall. Monday night, I swear little Rose ran a mile without stopping. If I don't get them outside soon, they're going to wear a pattern in my living room carpet.

Can you imagine what might happen if I tried to introduce a poor puppy into this crazy mix? Oh my. I don't think I'm ready just yet. Nope. No puppy. We've got enough wild animals.