PART 1 - mom hates dogs
i have been quite happy about the childhood i was able to make for my kids with one exception--pets. having pets in the home is one thing i always imagined for my children but was never able to make happen. readers of the site know the main road-block here has been marty. fact is, marty and all six of her siblings are famous pet-haters. granted, it is hard to not be impressed by the job their mother did on them in this regard. to pass on a conviction in a manner so consistent and absolute should be commended. and the stamping did not fade in time. i know because i passed the most adorable and cuddly critters by my wife's face and you'd think i was waving nothing but dish towels and staplers before her. the U.S. military might want to recruit the services of marty's mother to see if her talents might be effective in other areas of influence as well.
the most telling story, told here in the past, was when i made my first real move towards getting a dog. when i floated it by marty, she said, most casually, that would be fine. if i was ready to get a dog then i should get a dog. after a pause she added that what i should not do is expect her to help in any way. cautious of a catch, i probed my wife's language, particularly the phrase "in any way". to this she turned to me, looked me in the eyes and said:
"in any way" means when you go on your annual weeklong ski trip and the children forget to feed the dog and it is laid out, dehydrated in front of its water bowl and just needs me to pour a glass, a tiny glass, of water into it ... i won't. and the first thing you'll have to do after walking in the door after your annual weeklong ski trip is carry a dead dog into the backyard, dig a hole and bury it.
well ok then.
so if we were to do this i needed to know that my kids could step up when needed and take care of an animal. test one was hermit crabs. these seemed like the lowest impact trial i could imagine. so i told the kids the plan and explained that this would be a gateway pet to a dog. my young children, the oldest at the time being around ten, said they were in, would do anything needed and we made it happen. within a week we had three hermit crabs and within two months bella said she was tired of them and we could get rid of them. when i told her that you don't just get rid of pets she said that then she gives them to alex. i asked an eight-year old alex if he was ok with this. he said he was.
while my experiment did not go as successfully as i hoped it would, it did produce one of my favorite family moments. one day while doing my weekend chores i looked in on the crabs to make sure they had food and water. they had neither and i mean their water dish was so bone dry you would have thought it never contained water ever. i went to the top of the steps and yelled down to alex.
TROY
alex!
ALEX
yeah dad.
TROY
hey. your hermit crabs don't have any water.
ALEX
i have hermit crabs?
and with that single question, innocently yelled up a staircase, i saw three years, minimum, get added to my dog calendar.
Coming Next: Part 2 - Bella finds a loophole
PHOTO taken by a tennis hitting partner of mine. 
