Thankfully Tuckered Out

We've had a lot to be thankful for this month of Thanksgiving.  Mom and Sister got to come spend the holiday with us and Dudley was overjoyed.  This is the first time he got to meet his Grandma from Okie-homa and he loved her from the minute she walked in the door.  The feeling was mutual, of course, and Grandma lavished him with love the whole time she was here.  We had a wonderful meal, lots of giggling and relaxing time, sat outside by the fire, shopped like crazy and spent a leisurely Black Friday visiting out-of-the-way boutiques and taking a country drive down to the Amish market to load up on homemade goodies.  Hubby got some hunting time in and loaded our freezer with fresh venison.

Dudley's bedtime was later than usual as we all tried to stay up as late as possible each night, getting the most out of our visiting time.  He'd move from one lap to another trying to get comfortable so he could fall asleep.  The last night he barely hit the bed before he zonked out and was snoring away.  The week flew by and before you know it, we were saying our tearful goodbyes.  The visits never seem to last long enough.

The day after everyone left, the house seemed so empty.  Dudley walked from room to room looking for his ear scratchers and belly rubbers.  He looked so forlorn when he plopped down after his search turned up nothing.  No more Grandma and Auntie Tiff.  Heavy sigh.

Thank you Lord, for our family time.  Thank you for all the love and fellowship.  Thank you for providing for us and for blessing our lives.  Thank you for the peace in our hearts and for snoring bulldogs.

Motherhood: Not for the faint of heart!

I would have made the world's worst Mother!  Having this puppy, makes me realize this more and more every day.  I'm over-protective, worrisome, and project hypochondria on the little bugger at the slightest sign of a runny nose or if he even looks at me funny.

They say Mom's have eyes in the back of their heads and are all-knowing, but obviously that doesn't include me because Dudley swallowed a sock once without me even knowing until later that night when he threw it up, whole!  I didn't even know a dog would eat a sock, for heaven's sake!  I shouldn't be surprised though, as he eats anything and everything he can get his mouth on.  Bugs, rocks, leaves, twigs, dirt.  He thinks everything on the ground is food, I guess, whether it tastes good or not.  I was in horror the first time I caught him chasing and then eating a spider on the porch.  He even tried to eat a wasp once, even after it stung him.  Good grief!

If he's out in the back yard playing and gets within three feet of the fence I'm having a come-apart.  I'm scared he'll get in with the donkeys and they'll stomp him to death.  Hubby has strung wire all along the bottom boards of the fence to prevent him from squeezing underneath, but still I start hyperventilating anytime he even gets close.  Hubby tries to reassure me and get me to relax, but I just can't seem to do it.  "Just let him be a puppy!" he says, or "Stop stressing out!"  I'm trying, really I am, but if anything ever happened to that precious angel, and especially if my donkeys had something to do with it, I'd just die.

Today I had him with me at the office and he was just snoring away.  When he woke up, I took him downstairs for some fresh air, then fed him some lunch.  When I went to clean him up afterward, I noticed one of his eyes had no pupil.  One eye was perfectly fine with his normal sized pupil and the other had none at all!  Of course this scared the peewiddlywaddles out of me, so the first thing I did was look on the internet for an explanation.  Can you imagine me with a human baby, looking everything up on the internet and then believing everything I was reading?  We'd be bankrupt from all the emergency room visits in the middle of the night!  I was just getting ready to load him up and run him over to the vet when I looked down and his eyes were back to normal.  Whew!  Not sure what caused it, but it sure scared me there for a minute.  See what I mean about projecting hypochondria?  I instantly think the worse and that he's somehow contracted some rare and terrifying condition that can't be cured!

I just can't imagine what a bundle of nerves I would have been if I had ever had a real baby of my very own to care for.  Motherhood is such a big responsibility and I honestly don't think I was cut out for it.  I know they say the instincts just come to you naturally, but I'm not sure I believe it.  It sure makes me admire all the mother's I know, my own included.  Mothers deserve diamond encrusted, solid gold medals for all they endure.  One for every year they are mother's, and then some!