Tess the Mess

I have always loved animals.  Growing up we had a variety of interesting animals around the house:  the basset hound Rosie who liked to run away (a lot!), the half-basset-half-?? named Cubbie who liked to terrorize my best friend Lyndsay, a rabbit we named Peter until he/she had babies (oops!) and we changed her name to Sally, the hamster Thumper (named after watching Bambi) who liked to keep everyone up at night and frequently escaped his cage, my crazy parakeet Noah who bit everyone and screeched so much on Saturday mornings I started putting his cage in the closet at nights, and the family beagle, Riley, who was a truly great pet until he started using the house as his restroom and had to find a new home.

So naturally, when Chris and I got married I told him I wanted a dog.  He said we had to wait until we had a yard, so I waited patiently and when we moved to Arkansas and bought our first house what did I do?  Immediately started looking at puppies!  We decided we wanted a boxer, and a friend told me they knew someone with boxer puppies.  I fell in love at first sight with our little Sedona.



Sweet Sedona

Can you blame me?  She was beautiful.  And a great dog!  But she had what we referred to as a "drinking problem."  On a daily basis she would drink, and drink, and drink water until she threw it up on whatever or whoever happened to be close by.  We laughed about it and questioned our vet but he wasn't concerned, so we weren't either...until she turned a year old and stopped eating.  We found a new vet but it was already too late - our sweet puppy had a congenital kidney disorder, was massively anemic, and wasn't going to make it.  We were heartbroken.  In all my experiences with pets, this was the first time I had to make the decision to put one down; I don't think I stopped crying for well over a week.

The Mess

That was May 2010.  So what did I do in June 2010?  Bought a new puppy!!  Enter Tess the Mess.  I should have known by the mischievous look on her face that she was going to be a handful from day one, but I was blinded by her cuteness.  Aside from the fact that we found out several months after we bought her that she had demodectic mange (!) and had to pay for 2 rounds of treatment to get rid of it, this little girl is a jumper, a chewer, a digger, a barker, a licker, a cuddler, and the neediest dog I've ever met.  She was impossible to crate train (she HATES being alone), so we have to put her outside when we leave - the result of which is a chewed-and-scratched-up door frame and massive holes all over the yard.  But she can be very sweet and fun, and the rest was all tolerable as long as our wonderful neighbors, the Moore family, were next door with Tess's sister, Lily - we just took a board off the fence and let the dogs play together outside all day long, running back and forth between the yards and taking all their energy and neediness out on each other.

Me & "Jealous Pete" Tess

Tess was a bit confused when we brought Avery home - she didn't quite understand who this new little person was, but she figured out very quickly that I no longer had all the time (or patience) in the world for her and she was no longer the center of attention in our house - and she didn't like it.  I became even more grateful for Lily's presence because Tess really started driving me crazy - following me around wherever I went, walking in front of me and then stopping so I nearly trip on her, trying to get in between me and Avery when we had floor time, etc.  "Jealous Pete" became her new nickname, but at least I could kick her outside to play with Lily when she really got on my nerves.  But just when I thought I was getting a handle on having a dog and a baby, our fabulous neighbors and their dogs moved into a new home, and things in the Marsh household got really interesting. 

Let's just say that Chris and I have both threatened our dog recently with everything from a new home to an early death and burial in the backyard so no one would ever find out.  Don't get me wrong, I still love my dog, but I now have ZERO patience with her needy-shenanigans.  My biggest issue with her is not the destruction of personal property or the annoying habit she has of following me around EVERYWHERE, it's her jealousy of the baby and the fact that she barks at her when we go out in the backyard, making her cry and me lose my temper.  I don't know how to break her of that, and honestly, I'm not sure I have the time (or desire) to invest in it.  Does that make me a bad puppy-mama?

When I complained to my sister about The Mess, her response was, "Why do you think a lot of people who have dogs get rid of them when they have kids?"  I totally get it now.