Northern Wyoming News - Serving the Big Horn Basin for over 100 years

I am a fur parent. I cannot speak for parents of children of the human variety but I was once one of those human children so I feel I am qualified to state that there are similarities in raising both.

How many of us growing up ever heard “Wait until your father/mother gets home?” Or how many of you human parents say that now?

Well fur parents do not actually voice the words, we let actions speak for themselves. Case in point. When our “children” misbehave, i.e. tear something up or get into something my husband leaves the mess. It’s the fur parent way of telling the kids ‘wait til Mom gets home.

And by seeing the mess I get to figure out the appropriate discipline. .

So Monday night I go home. After a short drive home and short visit with my bestie I was in a good mood until I walked into the living room and saw two wrappers destroyed in the middle of the room. I looked at my husband and said “Someone got in the garbage again?” A quiet nod.

I thought well could be worse … it was when I walked into the kitchen – where I discovered an empty bread sack and an empty tortilla chip sack shredded in the middle of the kitchen floor.

Now the problem with fur parents is the same that human parents have if you have more than one child and you do not actually see the child or children misbehave. You have a pretty good idea which one did it but you do not know for sure.

You see we have tried to break both dogs from getting in the garbage (no they are not starving, they are just naughty). But only one was taught by an older fur sibling (RIP Sarah) to stretch up on the counter and get food.

We have learned to push things back or make sure things are put away at night and whenever they are left alone.

My husband swears after lunch he pushed the bread and chip bag away. Maybe the dogs worked together and one stood on the other to reach the food.

They were both scolded (not harshly, you’ve seen my fur kids how can you yell at those faces). They were told they would get supper, mainly because I wanted to see who was hungry and who was not.

They were also told that they would not receive their nightly treat – treats are for good dogs.

The dog we were certain was the main culprit, Ivy, actually dove into her food dish at the normal supper time. Hmmm. Maybe she got the food down and Shadow pushed her way in to eat. But Shadow is not a bread eater, unless there is meat or cheese between two slices.

Shadow kept begging for her nightly treat though. But as any border collie owner knows they are creatures of habit and routine and she knows when we are done eating, Mom goes into the kitchen to do dishes and give them treats. Shadow feels that sometimes Mom just needs prodding to get into the kitchen.

One of the frustrating things is we believe they didn’t get the food out of the garbage and counter because they were hungry, but rather they were pouting because Dad left them home.

So there you have it, another example of how raising fur kids and human kids can be similarly frustrating.

Hmmm. I wonder what I will walk into tonight.