October 14. Day 287. Fur babies

Meet Greg. The dog Rumple and I bumped into at the park this afternoon

One of the ways I fill my countless hours of spare time (laughs slightly hysterically) is examining the latest research relating to families and children. Often I look at it and think "seriously? You spent time, effort and money confirming the bleedingly obvious" (such as teenage males do risky stuff. Well duh). And this week there was another one. Apparently women think of their dogs as children and the same brain cells fire when they are shown photos of their dogs as their kids. Who would have thought? Well, anyone who has ever had a dog, that's who. There are two males in my home I address as "baby boy". One I gave birth to. The other I adopted from a puppy farm as soon as he was able to join our family. If the house caught fire, there would be one under each arm (although exactly how I would carry a 16-year-old is anyone's guess). And just last night I took the fur friend round to my sister's house because a storm was approaching and there would be no-one home. He might be scared. Can't have that.
And within the past 24 hour hours friends with dogs confessed to 
1) leaving the airconditioning on for the dog 
2) cancelling Christmas celebrations to pay for her dog's operation.
We do what it takes to keep them comfortable because they are our babies - and I don't need a research study to tell you that.