I was incredibly nervous about bringing the baby home to my two doggies that first day. Not that there was anything to be worried about. Both of my dogs are very sweet and have never intentionally hurt another living creature. They are both rescues and both very loved and spoiled.
Penny just turned four and has been with us for three years. She was taken from an abusive home, where we believe she was beaten by her owners (as she is afraid of anything that has a long handle, like brooms and umbrellas). When we adopted her, Penny was so skinny that her fur hung between her ribs. As a result of her starvation she is a terrible beggar now and behaves as if we’ve never fed her. Her feedings must have been few and far between based on her appearance and behavior. She was also incredibly skittish at first, shying away from strange men, refusing to go up the stairs, attempting to hide from us at times, and once she was attached to us, she developed terrible separation anxiety. All of these things have improved with time, so more drastically than others. I believe that though some of these behaviors corrected themselves because Penny now lived with a loving, devoted family and had all the food she could eat, some of these behaviors only improved after we added one more to our family: Dodger.
Dodger is a 70 pitbull-black lab mix. Now, if you believe the stereotypes about pitbulls you have been gravely misinformed. Pitbulls are caring, loyal dogs. They were once considered to be “nanny” dogs as they are so devoted to their human children that they protect and watch over them like a nanny would. Dodger definitely falls into this category, though I didn’t know this at first.
He was a rescue, just as Penny was. Dodger had been given to the pound because he shockingly grew too big (who knew that puppy labs and pitbulls got bigger?!?!). So our poor pup had been in the pound for over a month when we found him. He had been ill, neutered, and injured during his stay. Yet none of this dampened his spirits! Dodger (who was 8 months old at the time) quickly bounded out of his dog bed on the way home so he could spend the rest ride in my lap, licking my face and trying to paw at his new daddy in the driver’s seat. When we got home, his demeanor did not change. Dodger was incredibly affectionate, curious, and loving. He got into his fair share of trouble due to his curiosity and it was this feature that had me worried.
Obviously the baby would be a marked change in the house. This new creature would be coming in, demanding all my attention, making new strange noises (and smells), and he would look like nothing Dodger had ever seen before. So, to clarify, I was never worried that Dodger would intentionally hurt the baby, only that his curiosity (and his unawareness about his strength) would unwittingly harm baby C.
Thankfully, this fear was completely unfounded. Neither Penny or Dodger ever showed any aggression towards the baby. My biggest concerns were when I found Dodger standing on his hind legs looking into the crib as C lay there making some new sound.
I swear, I don’t think either dog got any more sleep than I did those first few weeks. Every time C made a new sound, they were up. Each time he broke into a serious cry they both looked from the baby to me and back again, as if to say “What is that noise Mom? Why is he doing that?” Their concern and confusion was obvious. It didn’t help that every time I got up, the dogs got up. Where could I possibly be going three times a night? Why was I walking up and down the hallway with this screaming child in my arms? Poor puppies were so exhausted by the end of that first week that they each slept for about 30 hours straight.
Once they got used to the sounds, the smells, the changes in movement, they began to grow curious. Dodger in particular was curious about everything. He wanted (and still wants) to lick C every chance he could. At first softly, but once C was old enough to giggle when Dodger kissed him, his kisses became a little more fervent.
C was not the only thing Dodger wanted to taste. He tried to get his mouth on everything from the breast milk leaking from me to the spit up on the rocking chair to the dirty diapers to C’s first alligator tears.
And while I shooed him away from both the breast milk and the dirty diapers, I have relaxed about the other two. Though honestly disgusting to me, who am I to deny Dodger (or Penny for that matter) some spit up formula if he wants it? It saves me getting out the upholstery cleaner! Seriously though, the times I don’t have a burp cloth handy, by the time I make it back to clean up the spit up, it’s already gone.
As the kisses, they are still happening. Both dogs have taken to licking him more gently on the face after some guidance from daddy and mommy, but that hasn’t stopped them from attacking any exposed area of flesh with their tongues, to the delight of C. He squeals with laughter as they tickle his feet with their sloppy kisses. Or when they lick his sides, hands, legs, literally anything they can get to!
C, for his part, loves them back with equal curiosity, and both Penny and Dodger bear it well. A now mobile C uses their bodies as jungle gyms. Though I try to stop him, C grabs fistfuls of fur and pulls. He unintentionally gouges eyes, gives wet willies, and tail bites. And for the most part, they both take it. Penny, being more motherly, just accepts the abuse. Sometimes she’ll try to nudge him away with her nose, but mostly she just lays there, looking at me, pleading with her mournful eyes. Dodger, however, will take C’s abuse for much shorter stints before he subtly and sometimes not so subtly moves out of the way. Ironically, Dodger’s curiosity has lessened as C’s has grown, knowing now the hidden danger of those curious kisses (and how close they’ll get him to C’s pinching little fingers).
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The Modern Mrs. 