Fourth Child

As I sat cuddling our two younger children this morning with the puppy vying for a place on my knee, I thought about how many ways it feels like having a fourth child.

Yesterday I put her under the shower and washed her with the kids’ shampoo so it wouldn’t sting her eyes or be too harsh for her delicate skin.  I checked that the water wasn’t too hot, she splashed and got me soaked and then I ‘rubba-dub-dubbed’ her in a big, fluffy towel.

Like the children, she always wants what we’re eating and sits waiting expectantly.  Unlike the children, it’s not (usually) the same as what she’s having. (Unless we’re really skint…Joke, obviously).

She’s teething and wants to chew everything, so she needs her own special chewing toys that will be soothing for her gums.  And like our nineteen month old, she gets chastised if she tries chewing the other children.  (Unlike our nineteen month old, though, the puppy seems to be growing out of it).

Like our nineteen month old, she is also partial to climbing on the back of the sofa, tries escaping every time we open the door, gets in the way when we’re trying to close it (the puppy gets told to get her ‘little nose’ out of the way rather than her ‘little fingers’, though) and keeps trying to eat cat food.

Like the kids, the puppy delights in winding up the poor, long-suffering cat and chasing him around the house.  She also gets silly and overexcited, needs to be told to calm down and gets told to be quiet on occasion too (but this is mainly because her bark is embarrassingly pathetic, sounds more like a smoker’s cough and would be more likely to make a burglar laugh than run away in terror).

Finally, I’m constantly cleaning up after her (but at least we can put her outside to wee and poo…hmm, that’s an idea…) and, like the children, we make sure to mop out her cage regularly and tell her off for pulling on her lead… 🙂