Taking Jack for a walk...

Before we openly welcomed Gabriel and Michael into our family, Jack, our puppy, use to rule the roost.  We'd adjust our normal schedule so we could give him two lengthy walks a day, we'd pamper him by getting him groomed on a regular basis, we event spent an outrageous amount of money to have his teeth professionally cleaned because I've been told it increases their life expectancy and overall health.  If you'd ask anyone, I think they would have agreed, Jack was one spoiled doggy.  (Note the tense of that statement... past.)

That all changed when Gabriel and Michael joined us and just as everyone warned us it would happen, it did.  These days Jack lies around the house mooping for attention and begging for someone to give him a walk.  He is always on his best behavior staying quiet when the other boys are screaming as loud as they can.  He shares (not that he has a choice) all of his toys, including his beds and he waits patiently while everyone else is attended too before him.  Then on most nights, just before Jarrett and I ready to collapse, Jack perks his head up, wags his tail and gives us the look that gets us every time.  It is the look when he begs to go for a walk, the one and only highlight of his day. 

Yesterday Daddy was at work so the boys and I spent the day together and around dinner time I was starting to feel very guilty that little Jack hadn't received an ounce of attention, so I gathered up the boys and asked Jack if he'd like to go for a walk.  Jack knows the routine and as soon as he sees the first clue that a walk might be in his future, he starts acting like he's been given a shot of that 5hr energy drink stuff.  He springs up, dances in a circle, hops up and down and wags his tail faster than the windshield washers on my car can go during in a mid-west rainstorm.  The boys go with us on some occasions and when they do they want to take part in the event.  Gabriel likes to carry the keys (it seems most of the time his pants are the only one with pockets) and Michael recently has asked to carry the plastic bag (which I'm sure you can guess what it is for).

As we started out on our walk to enjoy the beautiful cooler weather, we started talking and I noticed Michael insisted on following behind.  Normally, a half a block ahead of me, I thought it was strange but just wrote it off to him having one of his "poky Pete" moments.  We continued around the block when Michael announced "Mom, why hasn't Jack gone poo poo yet"  "Um, probably because he doesn't have to yet Michael," and I continued to answer Gabriel's question about what Disneyland is like.  We continued on Michael still a few steps behind Gabriel, Jack and I,  when all of a sudden Michael started screaming like he had found a pirates treasure.  As we turned around Gabriel and I witnessed Michael say, "Mom, I found some poo poo" as he bent over picked up (with his bare hands) some dried deposits another dog had left behind.  Before I could even react with a scream of "NO!"  he deposited the droppings into our plastic bag, looked up and smiled, waiting for a response of appreciation from me.  "Gross" Gabriel yelled and Michael turned his head and made a puzzled look.  Trying not to freak out, I calmly said, "Michael please don't touch anything else with that hand, hold it out away from your body and far from Gabriel and me okay?" I then went onto explain that we never pick up poo poo with our bare hands, when Mom and Dad pick up Jack's stuff we always wear gloves or other covering because it is very yucky.  Michael seemed to get it after the fact but we still had half way to go to get home. 

We ended up making it back home and even though Michael was complaining his arm hurt from holding it out as far away from his body as possible for a long long long long way, it think we learned a valuable lesson.  Mom, needs to hold the bag and Jack from now one and we need to distract Michael from looking for poo, maybe we'll try airplanes next time.  Michael was completely disinfected with multiple soaps, warm water, disinfectant hand sanitizer and a few more hand washes.  I'm very confident we got the germs off because this morning when he woke up he said, "Mommy my hands scratchy".  He was sure right, let's just say we've been giving him lotion all morning trying to moisturize his little paddy's.

Until next time,
angie