March 2. Day 61. My blended family

Sunday afternoon. For blended families across the nation, Sundays are a prime time for the little ones to move from one home to another. Now let me make it clear. As someone who has never lived through this actuality I do not pretend to understand how it feels. I speak only from the very superficial things I have seen and the stories told to me by some of my nearest and dearest. It was just the image that sprang to mind as my brother walked back through the gate with arms full of The Fed's possessions and handed him over. He informed my of an incident at the park which may have resulted in a sore leg. And there was a gentle chastising of my "parenting" style in a conversation with the neighbours where it was claimed I would "un-do" all the strict training he had instituted in the past week. Following a tearful departure there was a period of readjustment as the fur friends again worked out how to live with each other and a little show of anxiety as The Fed peed on the bed (to be fair to Fed it was the guest bed and he is a guest in our house so he could have just been marking his territory). And then they both went wild. The house became a race track and the noise was unbearable and I asked myself not for the first time why on earth do I agree to this? And to answer that question I only needed to see the look on the faces of the strangers we met as we went on our afternoon walk. The two dogs have all the family resemblance of Danny DeVito and Arnold Schwarzenegger in Twins. But as they trot along together on two ends of a single lead the affection they have for each other is clear. Like most siblings there are times when you are sure they will kill each other but woe betide anyone who tries to come between them. Yep, it may be a dysfunctional arrangement but it works for our family and that's all that matters.