Sunday, April 8, 2012

You Sure Have Bad Breath, But Love is Fur Real

Some of you know me well, but the majority of you are getting to know me on the fly. You read my snippets of life and, in the end, you may get to know me better than my own loved ones could possibly hope to know me.

I've had many adventures in life, but a new passion is raising Great Pyrenees dogs. A Christmas gift for the kids, it quickly turned into a business venture. To make money, you ask? Yes, there's money in it, but oh my, my, my... the puppies are irresistible and that is the main reason I do this thing called love... puppy love.

I don't have Easter bunnies or some warm and fuzzy story about The Resurrection for you today. I always leave the obvious to somebody else. I have warm fuzzy puppies for you for my Easter post and I think that's fine.

I admit it. I'm too cute for words.
I am a great guard dog and
a warrior princess
I like to burp.

Are you talkin' to me?!


I do not know what makes my puppies' breath so horrible. I suspect they eat each other's poop, although I've never witnessed it. However, nothing - and I mean nothing - will keep me from snuggling these puppies, not even skunky smelling poop breath.

While writing this post, I have gotten up no less than five times to check on my fussing pups. Why did I choose to have a career AND be a mother? I don't know. My oldest daughter, now nearly 14, once told me that dogs were better than people. Although I used to disagree, some days I do quite agree and can't come up with a compelling argument against that line of thought.

I have seen other mothers post about this motherhood thing and I have more than two cents worth to put in on the subject. I never wanted my own children. Don't get me wrong here, I knew I would have children someday, but I never had that yearning for my own like most women have. I never wanted to go through labor. I never dreamed about being pregnant. I never wanted to be awakened ten times during the night for a fussy li'l babe. I never had any interest in having a child nestled to my breast, partaking of the sweet nectar of life.

Side note: I swear, those pups will suck on anything at all, thinking it's a boob. Why, I was afraid I'd get a hicky from one of them the other day during a neck snuggle! Anything smooth, pretty much anything at all, must appear nipple-like to a puppy. My thumb. Their blanket. Their sister's ear. Their brother's um... well, at that age, puppy manhood must resemble a nipple. In their defense, they can't see properly yet and barely have their eyes open. They are just three weeks old and I'm sure incest is the last thing on their minds.

I never thought about being a mother, yearned for it, came up with baby names, and I just didn't desire it. I wanted children that were in pull-ups already. Lucky for me, when I met my current husband and love of my life, he gave me children already in pull-ups, just as I had hoped for. No stretch marks. No bawling babies. No sleepless nights. Perfect. A dream come true!

Raising puppies, however, has given me what I missed with small children; sleepless and interrupted nights, frequent loads of laundry, constant worry about their safety. Just like with human motherhood, these things are all worth it when I hear a crying puppy and I go to check the problem and what it really wants is... held. It's been a metaphor for me lately. I understand the infantile need for love ingrained in all beings. We just want and even need nothing more than love. We want and need to be held, nurtured, snuggled. Yes, even if we have crap for breath. We just want a good hug.

It doesn't take long for the fussy puppy to breathe slower, close its weary eyes, and relax into a puddle on my chest once I pick it up and rock it slowly to and fro, whispering calming things in its ear. I've had a couple of stressful situations the past day or so that made me realize how much like that puppy I really am. I just want to be held. Just hug me. Just cuddle me and make me feel loved.

If you think that's pathetic, your heart must be as cold and hard as stone. If you don't ever feel that way yourself, you're missing out on a great part of being alive. Needing someone is one of the greatest feelings in life. It gives you purpose. It gives them purpose. Let me tell you, if you feel you have no one and you are utterly alone, Beetlejuice movie scene style, I highly recommend a puppy. Kittens also do nicely, although there is a possibility of them attacking your eyes with their sharp little claws while you sleep. Yes, I've had that happen.

I will tell you more about love in future posts - love for my family, love for my friends, love for my children, and love for my husband. I do gush about them on the days they are not annoying me. But today is all about puppy love. It's fur real and I'm smitten, no matter what the cost. I told you that Everyday Underwear wouldn't always be about the funny stuff. Some days, it's just about the sweet stuff and there's a side order of funny coming with the next post.

If you have one, tell me a story about your furry babies. I may be a humorous kinda gal, but I'm human-orous and like a good love story, even if it is of the four-legged kind. Maybe you have a frog you love. Or a lizard. That's okay too, although I wouldn't be able to imagine a very good snuggle story out of those creatures.


20 comments:

  1. I'm a sucker for a cute dog. I love dogs with big eyes, too. They melt my heart.

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  2. I didn't like dogs hardly at all before getting these, even though we already had a mini-weenie. These Great Pyrenees have certainly melted my heart.

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  3. I have always liked dogs and absolutely love puppies!  You have a beautiful dog and puppies.

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  4. I love my dogs.  My little Mindy has laid by through two pregnancies of bed rest.  And Mindy and Theo have laid by me many times when I was home on the couch sick.  They don't care how bad your breath is either because they love you no matter what.  They are really the best.

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  5. Hey, Brenna, thanks for leaving a comment. People who know me in person rarely ever do that! That is so cute what you said, that they don't care what your breath smells like :) But then again, they do eat dead things, so I could have pretty bad breath and be okay in a dog's eyes. LOL! Miss you, Brenna.

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  6. Awww Cindy the pups are so cute!!  And you are right about kitties and their claws, when our's was a baby we had to lock him in the bathroom in the middle of the night, it was that or getting clawed to death at 3am!!!  Thanks for such a sweet post!  My hubby also gave me a daughter, I refer to her as my inherited daughter Jessica, and my Melissa I refer to as my 14-year old love of my love - and my purpose on earth (at least according the her) is to embarrass her!!
    Have a great week!!
    Lisa

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  7. Big Doggies! Puppy Love. Have you heard Snuggle Puppy by Sandra Boynton? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hpd0BjivKL0&feature=related

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  8. I grew up having mid-sized dogs and didn't think I would like really big dogs, but I have a German shepherd now and she's the best dog I've ever had. She's huge, but totally sweet (not to mention a great protector).

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  9. I think it's so funny that we have one of the smallest breeds and one of the biggest. I love 'em all, but these big dogs have stolen my heart like I thought no other dog could. Our mama dog is the protector of the two, but just the size of our male scares people!

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  10. Awww, that is the cutest!!!! Love that! Such a precious dog and the song is too cute.

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  11. Us embarrassing them is better than them embarrassing us, they just don't know it yet. Ha!

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  12. Sweet, Cindy ... thanks for the lift! I needed that and there truly is nothing like puppies (or poopy puppy breath) to help one to smile. And thanks for visiting my blog ....  (please tell your daughter that I agree with her ... dogs are better people than most humans are! :-)

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  13. Great Pyrenees are such gentle giants! I'm always amazed at the one that lumbers about at the dog park and lets everyone pat, poke, and prod him. My energetic blue heeler could learn a lot from dogs with such patience. 

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  14. These dogs are sooo cute!  I love puppies, i totally relate to breathing into them when they are on your chest. No better drug is there...

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  15. I know... they are just to die for!

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  16. That's one reason we got Great Pyrenees. They are great protectors, but gentle giants, good with children and cats. Only problem is that when they are young and energetic, they are big enough to knock you down or scrape you good with their paw while just trying to prompt you to play with them. They have to be trained well from the get-go. Sounds like that one is well trained!

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  17. Adorable! We're in the midst of looking for a puppy to adopt for our daughter. Each little butterball we've met has instantly turned us all into putty. I can't wait until we have puppy breath around our house.

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  18. Watch out - it's totally addictive! But in a good way...

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