Currently This

My kids have wanted a dog for a long time. A long time. A long time ago, I promised them that when we got a house, we could get a dog. There just isn't room in this apartment for five people, three cats, assorted birds, a rabbit AND a dog, even the little rat kind of dog they wanted.

When my middle girl got sick, she kept asking for a puppy, but we just couldn't do it. Part of me wanted to give it to her, the way I wanted to give her anything that might help. Part of me was angry at being manipulated. Mostly, there just wasn't the money, room or attention left over every month for a dog.

So I would take them to pet stores and let them play with the puppies there, always with the caveat that we were NOT going to bring this dog home and, if pushed, we wouldn't come back to look at puppies anymore, either. It may sound cruel to let them play with dogs they couldn't keep, but it was the best I could do. Playing with the puppies made them happy and always, always distracted her from hurting.

You probably think you know where this is going, and in a way you would be right. For her eighteenth birthday, I got my middle girl a Siberian Husky puppy. Not just any puppy, but a Nintendog. Nintendogs are virtual puppies you play with and feed and walk and etc. You wouldn't think this would be as much fun, but this kid squeals and oohs and ahs every bit as loudly as she ever has over any real puppy and, in fairness, they are kind of cute. It responds to her voice and the touch screen, so she can scratch its belly and it shakes its little puppy legs and wags its little puppy tail. It chases the Frisbee she throws and is appropriately puppy-fierce as it rips things up.

She just loves it and of the last twenty four hours, I think she has been playing with her puppy half the time. It's been a heck of a distraction from the pain that seems to have made a reappearance in her life.