At the risk of inviting every devoted dog parent over to my front yard to let Fido drop one on my lawn, I ask, oh so tentatively, that you stop comparing dog ownership to early parenthood. Just hold up, put the leash back in the cupboard, take off your windcheater, and hear me out before posting my picture to your dachshund Facebook group with “CANCELLED” plastered across it. I can’t overstate this – I love dogs.
I am a bona fide “dog person”. I also love cats, I love rabbits. Look – you get it – I’m not anti-canine.
I’m so pro-animal I haven’t eaten one in nearly 20 years. Child’s play? Not quite. Credit: Shannon Morris But since having a kid, I’ve found myself in conversations with dog owners who genuinely believe they’ve experienced, pretty much, the same thing.
The same mind – eroding fatigue, unrelenting worry, the same overall life renovation that new parenthood bestows upon its willing victims. A friend who used to run a daycare centre told me she was certain the experience she had with her puppy was tougher than what she’d seen of new parenthood. Similarly, while travelling for work, a colleague noticed I was flat, and when I told him, “Oh, I’m just missing my baby,” he looked me square in the face and said, “I totally get it.
I haven’t been away from my dog this long before and I didn’t realise how much I’d miss him.” I can see where the confusion lies. Last week, on a beach walk with my toddler, I passed another woman .
