Must Love Cats and Dogs

Back in the early years of our marriage, hubby and I were often asked the ol' when-are-you-two-having-kids irritating question. Oh, we just got a dog we say - we are practicing on him.

A few years later, still no kids. But we did add a cat to the household. Same question would come our way. Same answer given by us...only modified to include the cat.

Well, fast forward to today (13+ years after the appearance of our first furry friend) and here we are with 2 real kids of our own. And we discovered recently that, after years of joking around about the dog and cat being our practice kids, our real kids are really quite like our dog and cat.

Our son is the dog of the family. And I mean this in the best possible way. Like man's best friend, he is friendly and eager to please his owners, um, I mean,uh, parents. You tell him to stop doing something and he pretty much gets it right off the bat. (Of course, he is 4 now, so there are times....)

And then there's Little Miss K. Yup - she's the cat. She's not lazy and fat and antisocial like our particular cat, but there's no telling her no. As in, No Keira - stop eating that refrigerator magnet. (Take away magnet and put back on fridge.) Two seconds later: No Keira, stop eating that magnet.

Repeat.

Repeat.

Repeat.

She keeps going back for more, totally lacking that admirable dog-like obedience gene.

But we love them all, dogs and cats alike.

And, as it turns out, getting those practice kids oh so long ago really might pay off afterall.