{Sunday Reminiscings}

As long as I can remember, Maddie has wanted a dog...among other animals. But "dog" is right at the top of the list (okay, maybe equal with "horse"). Every year, "I want a dog" is on her Christmas List. Well, for her birthday last year, Mitchell, her very generous cousin, let her take his dog, Ringer, for what was supposed to be about a week. We ended up keeping Ringer for about 5 weeks! Maddie is amazing at taking care of animals. She never complained about doing anything that needed to be done for Ringer. I never had to remind her to feed him, walk him, or bathe him. She proved that she is more than capable of taking care of a pet.

::Her favorite thing to do was sleep with Ringer. At night Maddie would go to bed with Ringer. He would lay his head on the pillow and the sheet and blanket would be up under his chin-so cute. Before I went to bed, I would put Ringer in his kennel (not my favorite thing to do).

::She and her friends loved to play soccer with Ringer

::Ringer pooped in the house twice, in the same spot. Maddie stepped in it barefoot. We were both gagging...seriously (I'm kind of gagging right now thinking about it).

::Ringer LOVED Bob. He would lay in between Bob's legs while Bob was watching T.V. (soooo funny!) When Bob got home from work, Ringer would go nuts to see him.

::William loved Ringer. The opposite is not as true :). Although Ringer was patient with William and could occassionally be found on Will's bed.

::By the end of Ringers visit, Maddie was ready to give up responsibility of Ringer. She realized that dogs are a lot of work and maybe she would just enjoy Ringer when visiting Mitchell from now on. WHEW!

So to all moms who have children that "think" they want a dog, let them borrow someone else's for a month and make sure you do NOTHING to help them. It's almost a guarantee that their desire for a dog will start to fade (at least for a little while).