Sunday, January 18, 2009

Laura and Moxie, Friends Forever. Maybe.

You would think that since I have an only child, I wouldn’t have to deal with all the drama that comes from having multiple children. And until a few weeks ago, that was totally true. I’ve never had to put a stop to an argument, never had to be diplomatic about loving my children equally, never had to split my attention. All that changed when we got a dog.

From what I can tell, Laura and Moxie really love each other. They get along wonderfully and love to play together. When they are apart, they really miss each other. Laura races downstairs in the morning to let Moxie out of her crate. Moxie even tried to follow Laura into preschool one morning and whines when I come back from school without Laura. So they’ve gotten close. Most of the time, Laura talks about how much she loves Moxie.

The rest of the times, Moxie is merely a source of annoyance, a furry creature here to look menacingly at Laura and her toys. Moxie has never chewed anything that doesn’t belong to her, but she has on occasion made off with something soft and fuzzy that is not hers. Naturally these contraband items have always been Laura’s toys, a fact which does not escape Laura’s notice. Through shrieks of outrage at her toys being carried away in a dog’s mouth, Laura has more than once proclaimed that Moxie is mean to her.

Sometimes Moxie doesn’t even look at Laura’s toys, but at Laura herself. This prompts the accusatory shout of, “Moxie is looking at me!!” How am I supposed to put a stop to a dog looking at a child? Even better is, “Moxie is breathing on me!!” Now, I don’t particularly love being breathed on either, but again, what am I supposed to do? Usually the only solution I can offer is to tell Laura to move or go somewhere else. So naturally Laura’s mind led her to the only possible conclusion. Since I am always telling Laura to bend to Moxie’s will (move somewhere else if she breathes on you, don’t look at her and you won’t see her looking at you, etc), then I must love Moxie more than Laura.

Yep, in the middle of the vet’s waiting room not long ago, Laura turned to me and said in a quiet little voice, “You love Moxie more than you love me”. Uh oh. Thoughts raced through my mind, trying to figure out how to be diplomatic until it hit me. Moxie is a dog. This is so easy. I told her right there, in front of Moxie, that there was no question in my mind that I loved her so much more than Moxie. Laura smiled the sweetest smile, I sighed in relief, and Moxie breathed on my knee. We were all happy. Until we got home and Moxie looked at Laura again. Cue the shrieking.

10 comments:

Dawn Parsons Smith said...

Love this post! My daughter goes through this with our cat! I read it to her just now so she could see she's not alone!

Thank you for visiting me today! My daughter has a doll she named Miss Claire!

Have a happy day!

Patty said...

That is so funny, I always defended our not having a dog, with the fact that we had too many kids. I felt the dog would definitely be neglected. Who knew that I may also have slighted my kids even more by dividing my attention by one more creature. Now that they all are pretty busy with their own lives, I think I am ready to have a dog to give some attention to. Maybe I should wait till the baby goes to college!

Jenna Cox said...

glad that Sits brought me your way!

Tara Bennett said...

Awww pets are the best!

congrats on being saucy!

Anonymous said...

Great post! And I know where you are coming from...

Stopped by from SITS - congrats on having a Saucy blog!

Three Dog Days said...

It's great that Moxie likes Laura so much!

Laura must have been reading the "How to Not Get Along With Your Siblings" Manual and since she doesn't have any real siblings, she has improvised and substituted the dog. How else is it possible that things like "She's looking at me!" are universal to all kids?

Well, back to trying to get a lawn instead of a recreation of the Great Plains in the 30's.

sheridan keeter said...

gotta love the way kids' minds work. so simplistic and logical. i often wish we could all go back and enjoy those days of blissful ignorance and complete matter-of-factness.

Kathleen @ Measuring My Life said...

What a great post. You've got to love kids with animals. We go through some of this when the little one goes over to my parent's and their dog. :o)

Congrats on being SAUCY!

Wendy said...

as a woman with 2 dogs and 4 puppies I am all about some animals. so i can relate that it sometimes feels like the kids can get neglected while loving on the pets. cute story

RamblingMother said...

Saw you on SITS. My daughter does the "you lub de animals more den me." This just started too.