Doggy Flu

Today, I played referee for neighborhood kids. I had to go talk with a couple of moms and get some things straightened out. The new kids down the road have played havoc with the pecking order. At first, Kade and Konner where enthralled with them and the new boys felt that Kade and Konner were their "best friends" but they would pick on Mac. Then, Mac became the favored one and now Kade is being picked on. It's gotten to the point where if my kids are going to play with those kids, I'll have to supervise at all times. Otherwise, they can't play together. Sigh.

I was just starting to think, "Hey, this dog stuff isn't so bad. It may work out after all!" when Kody decided to get sick. This morning, he threw up twice in the breakfast room, once in his crate that was in the family room, and a couple of times outside and then once in his crate that was moved to the kitchen. Lovely. And he turned down his doggy treats -- Kody NEVER turns down a doggy treat! The one decidedly good thing about a sick dog was that he was as quiet as a mouse all afternoon. He slept most of the day away, and would sometimes wake up to see what was going on and give us the saddest puppy dog eyes ever. As it turns out, I found out, Mac's dog had just been sick like Kody, too. Doggy flu?

Those of you worried about Kody's health -- I think he'll pull through. He was kind of dragging on his morning walk, and when I took him on an evening walk tonight, he seemed like his old feisty self. This is good. One of the neighbors who knows a lot about dogs and has been giving me advice, told me to watch that he didn't get sick. It might be a bowel obstruction and that would require surgery. I listened politely, all the while, thinking, "It's too bad for Kody that he belongs to us because if he's going to need surgery to survive bowel obstruction, then he's going to die!" I'm not paying for doggy surgery!

When working out the dog walk schedule, there are days when I can't give him a morning walk, so I got to thinking it certainly wouldn't hurt to take him on an evening walk, too. That way, most days, we'd go for two walks, but some days, I'd only take him on one walk. Now, on my morning walk, I plug myself into my latest book on tape and we go walking. It's my time to breath in fresh air and be by myself. However, for an evening walk, I got to thinking it would be fun to take one of the kids along with me. We could have a little one-on-one time. The kids agreed that it would be a good idea, but they each wanted to be first, so we did what we always do when we've got to choose one person -- "Pick a number". This is where I have a number in my head, and the kid getting closest to that number wins. Kathleen won, so that means that from there, we'll go by age, and Kylie will be going with me on the next walk, and then Kade, Konner, Keri Lynn, Kristofer and then back to Kathleen again.

Kathleen and I thoroughly enjoyed our walk. The sky had beautiful sunset colors. There was an amazing cloud formation, too, when we first came out. We didn't talk about anything significant. We just were together. I treasure those times and often wonder why I don't take more of those moments. Sometimes, I get to caught up in my own wants. I think children are God's way of helping us think outside of ourselves.

Then, after clean-up, we read from The Chronicles of Narnia. I love those books. We're reading Voyage of the Dawn Treader now. The little kids play with their toys "quietly" and sometimes Kody joins us if he's behaving. Otherwise, he goes back into his crate.

Now I'm going to go take my shower and get myself off to bed! I am beat!