It's Hard to Have a Nice House

It’s hard to have a nice house when you have a dog. As a puppy, they make little messes that require immediate and seemingly constant cleanup. Until they are completely housebroken, you feel like that last man in a parade of elephants, shovel and scooper in hand.

It’s hard to have a nice house when you have a dog. As they grow out of being a young pup, they learn that shoes, table legs and corners of the sofa are nice to gnaw on. We offer them toys and bones to chew, but that antique table leg is just too irresistible. We always tell ourselves we’ll replace it “…when they are older,” but we never do.

It’s hard to have a nice house when you have a dog. How is it they can sense you’re awake at 5:00am? Can they really hear your eyelids open? Who knows, but there they are licking your face and nuzzling you under the covers, demanding to go for a walk or be served breakfast. Bleary eyed, we lovingly oblige.

It’s hard to have a nice house when you have a dog. The constant shedding of fur means the vacuum is never really put away – do they have some sort of secret pact with The Vacuum Cleaner Manufactures Association of America to keep everyone employed? At work or the grocery store, strangers come up to you and ask what kind of dog do you have? The telltale sign being dog hair stuck to every inch of your clothing.

It’s hard to have a nice house when you have a dog. When they get sick (see above, re: cleaning up messes), we rush them off to the vet worrying and fretting until they return to their old self. Licking and nuzzling never felt so good, regardless of the time of day.

It’s hard to have a nice house when you have a dog. When they pass, we weep and mourn for weeks on end. Coming home at night is just not the same without them, and we secretly wonder when it will be OK to get a new puppy and start all over again. You see, it’s hard to have a nice house when you don’t have a dog!