Brown Puppy

I'm starting to have doubts about the dog thing.  There are a couple concerns I have.  Not many, but they are kind of large.  First of all, both A and J have these special stuffed friends that mean everything to them. And I have this fear of a dog getting a hold of one of them and ripping it apart, and how absolutely devastating that would be.  I know--teach the kids to put them out of the dog's reach, train the dog, etc. etc. etc.  But these stuffed animals mean more than you think.  I know many of you have kids who have special things, stuffed animals, blankets, etc., so you have an idea of how serious it is.  But today I'll write a little bit about a member of our family to give you more perspective.

Brown Puppy before Andy

Meet Brown Puppy.  I purchased him when I was pregnant with A, and he was just one of a whole pile of stuffed animals he had waiting for him when he was born.  But he's the one that was special to A right away, and he never looked back.  I've mentioned before about how A is a unique child, how he learns differently and processes things in his own way.  Well, sometimes Brown Puppy is his voice.  He expresses a lot of emotion through him, and nobody knows A better than Brown Puppy.  The pictures show how connected he is to him.  He's a constant companion.  He travels with us.  A makes costumes for him at Halloween.  He talks through him sometimes (and not in a creepy "redrum" kind of way).

All of A's people catch themselves talking to Brown Puppy sometimes.  When A has him talk to you, you end up answering him.  And oddly, it doesn't seem strange.  Poor thing has had so many surgeries.  A used to chew on his face when he was a toddler.  He's got no stuffing left in his middle, he's just a sack.  And he doesn't really resemble a puppy anymore.  I stitched a "smile" on him a couple years ago for A.  I have sewed him up so much I'm almost afraid to anymore.  When he gets washed, I put him in a net bag and I'm nervous the whole time.  He's at a point now where I'll have to put him in a sock or something to keep him safe when he's washed.

So it would really be a life altering thing if a puppy got a hold of Brown Puppy and did damage.  So we're talking about maybe getting a dog that's past the teething stage, or getting a smaller dog so that Brown Puppy would seem bigger to the dog.  I don't know.  J has "Cold Pup."  He's VERY important to J, too, but he's much larger and sturdier than Brown Puppy.  So I don't know.  We have more thinking to do, but I'm still leaning pro-dog.