rent-a-pet

We have been babysitting the Merrill's dog Goldie this week while they're out of town. Allie and Spencer took care of her because Taylor was at camp and I must say that did a fantastic job. It was fun to see her in the backyard chasing bees (please don't let her get stung in the mouth, I'm not up for a vet visit), and especially to take her for walks. Ethan LOVED standing on the couch to get a good look at her out in the back yard, every time pointing and grunting until I said, "yes that's Goldie". Our laundry room was converted into a dog hotel room complete with her bed. The kids didn't like closing the door on her while she was in there (what if she's afraid of the dark mom?) and so they rigged the laundry buckets in front of the door so she could look out but not escape. My kids are geniuses. One night we took Goldie on a walk and I started day dreaming about having a dog of our own and how fun it would be because we would be forced to take walks, usually as a family and how the dog would bring about such family unity. So continued my thoughts until I remembered Lauri's story about Goldie throwing up in the night more than once, dog diarrea in the basement, vet trips when the bee stung her in the lip (see why I was worried), grooming, expenses, etc. etc. Then I thought to myself, how fun it is that we can be like grandma and grandpa to Goldie, we can babysit her while her mom and dad are out of town and then we get to give her back for all of the crap we don't want to deal with. Literal and proverbial crap.