Stick Figure Family

When people ask, “What kind of dog are you going to get?” I usually reply, “Well, it’s a smaller dog, not quite in the toy dog category. We didn’t want a yapper, but also didn’t want a dog whose size and presence would overwhelm me in the kitchen while trying to juggle a pot of hot water and tomato sauce.”

Our decision to acquire a Cavalier King Charles did not come lightly. As a matter fact, playing into that decision was my belief that dogs resemble their owners. This may happen at birth (the dog’s) or as the dog becomes more a part of the family, in the same way some spouses grow to look alike. Mark and I were at a party recently, and were asked, “A re you two brother and sister.” I spit out my hurricane punch, most likely in the questioner’s face, but I really don’t know that for sure, because my eyes were watering after laughing (and crying ) so hard. We’ve only been married for two years. How could we look alike so fast! Or perhaps this was just confirmation that we were indeed going to spend the rest of my life together (I called “first”, just in case Mark gets any funny ideas about dying before me)

Since I believe in the notion of dogs resembling owners, a more appropriate response to the question, “What kind of dog are you getting,” would seem to be, “Have you seen my family?”

The best way to physically describe our blended family is to imagine a kindergartener’s stick figure drawing, with a mom, a dad, three girls and boy (and now a dog), a rabbit called Midnight, and Subaru, the eternal goldfish, and finally, perhaps an added niece or nephew in the picture because the teacher was not specific enough about the family part. So you have seven figures, plus a dog, fish and rabbit, all lined up, but no one stick figure more than an inch taller than the other.

This is our family. We are not big people. We have no desire for a big dog. It doesn’t even fit our personality profile, even we were big people. Mark is 5’4”. I am 5”, so it would stand to reason that any of our offspring would not develop into collegiate basketball players. At 20, 17 and 14.5, the girls have quite possibly stopped growing. I know I did in tenth grade. Davis still has the edge, in that his birth father was 6 feet tall. If he winds up in the middle, he could still win out. But his fuzzy math also includes Mark into the equation, so he doesn’t believe me when I tell him he could grow taller than the rest.

At any rate, this is how we stand as a family. And our dog Enzo, whose breed’s maximum height is 12-13 inches, will fit in quite nicely.