Visiting Kids II -- The Dog's take

The Visiting Toddlers brought another concern into sharp focus; a concern named Kuma, and this seems as good a time to introduce him as any.

Kuma, as I mentioned yesterday, is our dog. He's about 13 ½ months old, and indeterminate breed. His mother was an outside dog, you see, and had a lot of “Gentleman Callers.” To look at him, our guess is that he is mostly Collie, with some Shepherd, and Rotweiller coloring (I don't think I spelled “Rotweiller” properly, but my Spell Check suggested I spell it as “Rototiller.” Our flower beds would agree with this). He's about 66 pounds, and two feet tall at the spine, and about 3 feet from nose to bum.

Kuma s one of the sweetest animals you'd ever want to meet, and just as obnoxious as you'd expect from his age. As a Collie, he's bred to be a herder, so when these delightful angels moved faster than a normal walk (Which is more often than not, 'cause everything is just so darn exciting to these kids), Kuma had rein them in. The poor fella spent much of his weekend barking and grabbing at clothes & hands, which, quite justifiable, freaked the kids out! “Kuma's biting me again...” became a mantra (he's got no thumbs, how else is he gonna grab?).

So how's he gonna be with our kid(s) when the time comes? Protective? Almost certainly. Protective against self-induced speeds greater than 'stride?' I sure hope not, that's liable to make a lot of people crazy. And how about jealous? For all of his memory, he's had us all to himself (the cats leave us to him – they sneak in some affection when we're in the basement, the no-dog zone). Point being, we're wondering how to get him to take all of this in stride. Feel free to post your experiences.

To digress, I apparently won't be able to post everyday, but I'm having a lot of fun doing it, so it won't be hard to write almost that often. However, life happens, and new-life-happens seems to come with 3-4 doctors appointments a week (Gestational Diabetes adds two a week to this regiment). In case you're not familiar with GD, it when the pancreas is producing insulin, but the placenta is producing a hormone that interferes with it, so Mom's blood-sugars get high. It will pass after birth (yes, I did just giggle at my own pun), but for now its light insulin and heavy diet-control. Pain in the ass, but with a light at the end of the tunnel. Andrea's first meal after delivery will be a Caramilk and a Pepsi!