1. Why I rushed to the Michaels sale, and used all my coupons on scented candles we had to Ziploc away and toss in the garage? I need air!
2. Why Russell The Dog growls at all commercials featuring Thanksgiving Day shopping hours – maybe he and I don’t understand one another after all.
3. Whether they sell ice cream at the movie theatre still and if not – whether we can stop at Dairy Queen on the way there.
4. Whether I can convince Dear Husband to head over to McDonald’s tonight for an 11 pm cheeseburger (third night in a row, no joke).
5. The biggy – is Baby O.K. a girl or a boy?
Russell The Dog knows about Baby O.K. Or at least, I think he does. I’m telling myself that’s why he decided to relieve himself in my bedroom last night for the first time. Must be sibling rivalry – early form.
Everyone tells me Russell won’t matter as much once the new baby arrives. That he’ll fade into the background as more pressing issues and needs overtake my attention and my time. In many ways, they’re right. I know they are. But in other ways there is something special about Russell The Dog that is never going to change: He’s our fur baby.
He’s the one we brought home with great trepidation six months into our marriage. He’s the puppy who cried all night, day after day, as my dear husband lay on the floor next to him to keep him company (read: while I slept – not that he’ll ever let me forget it!). He is the one we hauled up and down three flights of stairs, sometimes making it to the small patch of grass outside. Other times not quite making it at all.
More than anything though, Russell The Dog is the one who moved us from “being married” to “husband and wife”. More than the cake we cut three years ago today, or the vows we took or the photos we snapped. More than the ceremony and the rings and the out-of-town guests. Russell The Dog forced us together in a way only a fur baby can.
He made us argue – and he made us find solutions. He made us compromise – and he made us give. He made us less selfish, more willing and more in tune to the needs of something – or someone – else. In short, he made us the couple we are today.
Having a dog is nothing like having a baby. I don’t have to deliver Baby O.K. to get that right off the bat. Filling a bowl with chicken flavoured dry food twice a day is nothing like siting up all night with a helpless little one who just needs you, of this I am certain.
But without Russell The Dog – we wouldn’t be the people we are today. Without the lessons we’ve learned, we wouldn’t be on our way to becoming what we’ve always wanted to be: a family.
So for that, Russell The Dog can pee on my pillow (this time). I’ll buy a new one.
