The Contrast of Two Dogs

Last week, we sat an old bulldog.

Edoten was not as affectionate as many dogs that have stayed with us. He rarely played. He did not like going for walks.

Mostly he just laid around.

But, you could still tell that he enjoyed being with us.

And we loved having him with us. He was a calm, stately old fellow.

This week we are sitting a Lab.

Cookie is only two years old. In many ways, she is still like a puppy.

She has high energy. She is constantly in motion. She rarely naps.

She barks.

Loudly.

Make that very loudly.

She is very sensitive to sounds. One noise from anywhere and she is barking and making our whole house shake.

When we take her for a walk, it is all we can do to keep her in check. Particularly when another dog is near. Cookie is very strong, and even when we tightly hold onto her leash with two hands and pull with all our strength, it feels like she might drag us to wherever she wants to go.

This past weekend, we took her to a dog-friendly beach. If we had thought it through ahead of time, I would have worn my beach gear. Because it was all I could do to keep Cookie from dragging me into the lake at times.

Kai did not care that his clothing got wet. He splashed right into the water with Cookie.

At night, when we want to go to sleep, she barks that extra loud bark as if to say that she wants to stay up and keep playing.

And in the middle of the night, when Kai gets out of bed, she starts barking again. The first night, I went out into the hallway and Kai was laughing.

“Dad, Cookie is barking!” he said joyously.

Yes, Kai, I hear her, I replied, not so joyously. I scolded him that you have to be very quiet if you wake up in the middle of the night. And no talking or she’ll bark more!

Until that moment, I did not realize how much I missed Edoten.

Kai said he was having trouble sleeping so I stayed with him and lay down in the extra bed in his room.

And as I lay there, I realized that my son is a lot more like Cookie than he is like Edoten.

Of all the dogs we have had, Cookie has probably been our most challenging. And Kai is probably more challenging than most kids. He is full of energy, enthusiastic, loud, always tugging us in directions we don’t want to go.

And while I’m not sure that I would want a dog like Cookie to stay with us more than a couple weeks, a boy like Kai, with all of his challenges, is exactly the kind of kid I want.

I’ll take his big ball of rambunctious energy.

It comes with his big smile, and all of his love.

And I would not have it any other way.