Breaking Us In

Dearest Little One,

I know that I should probably write more about your father before I start writing about the dogs, but seeing Marley and Me tonight inspired me to write about the joys that are Maynerd and Roxy. Your father will just have to wait!

It saddens me to write this, but I don't know if they'll be around when you're old enough to read this. If you didn't know already, they're two of the best dogs on the planet (not to mention the cutest)! And you, my dear child, have a lot to thank them for. They broke us in for you! It took some work on their part, but they were able to do it.

Maynerd

Maynerd is the dog of many names. He's Maynerd Eugene when he's in trouble (which is often). I started calling him "Buddy" early on, and that morphed into "Bubba," which changed again to "Bubby." He loves being called Bubby because that means that he's going to get his ears scratched.

Maynerd was my dog first. Well, technically, he was Nonni and Papa's dog first. Then he was Uncle Grant's dog. Then, he moved in with me and never looked back. He had been living with me for six months when your father and I started dating, and I swear, Maynerd was the one who cinched the deal for us.

You see, your daddy came to my house one night under the guise of needing some headache medicine (yeah, right). He walked inside, picked out a movie, and plopped down on the couch. Maynerd, seeing an open lap, jumped right on the couch next to him and put his head on your daddy's lap. That was it--it was love at first sight (between Maynerd and your daddy, that is). I think your daddy loved Maynerd so much that he knew that he had to marry me to get the dog, because he proposed fifteen days later.

The love story between your daddy and Maynerd is unreal. They definitely are two peas in a pod, those two. Your daddy's favorite thing to do in the wintertime is grab Maynerd for a spooning session on cold winter mornings. Good thing for your daddy that Maynerd is a cuddler!

Maynerd has been the dog with the mischievous streak. He thinks nothing of getting into the trash and dragging out whatever treasure he finds to devour right in front of our eyes. Each time, we stop him, and each time he looks at us with this look of shock that we took [insert random piece of trash here] away from him.

Maynerd prepared us to be parents in several different ways. For one, he's got a bladder problem, so we were changing diapers for years before you ever came into the picture. Yep, our dog wears denim diapers.

Another way he paved the road for you was he taught us all about priorities. In Maynerd land, cuddling and licking comes first, then sleeping, then playing with others. Those are pretty good mottos to live by, don't you think? Well, I don't know about the licking part, but everything else sounds about right. I can't tell you how many times I've been stressed out over something, and and he'll just walk over to me and put his head on my lap, as if to say "It'll be ok. Just pet me and it will be a-okay. While you're at it, could you give the ears a scratch, too? Nice. Right there. Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiggggggggggghhhhhht Thhhhhhhhheeeeeeeeeeeerrrrrreeeeeeee."

He's been an awesome dog, and we know that he's going to be your best buddy!

Roxy

Roxy is sooo my dog. We adopted her from the SPCA when your daddy and I had been married for two months. I fell in love with this black and white scraggly mutt the minute I laid eyes on her, and I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual. She very rarely leaves my side. In fact, as I write this, she's laying right next to me!

I know they say that dogs and their owners are usually alike, but that really is the case with Roxy and I. We're both short, feisty, and incredibly temperamental balls of energy. While Maynerd and your daddy catch up on their morning sleep, Roxy and I hit the ground running each morning. Granted, I'm not as excited as Roxy each morning (she treats each morning as if it were Christmas morning), but I love the time we share just the same.

If Maynerd taught your father and I about diapers and priorities, Roxy taught us about barf. You see, while Maynerd had problems keeping his bladder in check, Roxy had problems keeping her food down. She barfed. Everywhere. We eventually figured out what the problem was and changed her food (the barfing stopped), but your dad sure did have to get over his fear of barf really quickly!

Barfing aside, Roxy prepared your father the most for parenthood. He wasn't a very patient person at first, so Roxy had to break him in really well. She did this by rolling over to pee whenever he came near her or spoke in a stern voice. Needless to say, it didn't take your father long to realize that he needed to speak more gently around her. It took some time, but the two of them really have come a long way. Your daddy's now Roxy's second favorite person in the house, and she'll crawl onto his lap for a quick snuggle when my lap is otherwise occupied by a computer. We think she'll be the one to wake you up each morning. She tends to bark when her breakfast comes out :-)

So there you have it, dearest little one. The full story of Maynerd and Roxy. We've had such a fun time being "parents" to our dogs that we knew we needed to add human babies to the mix. Thank you for being the answer to our prayers!