I was reading through my old blog about the days and weeks after we adopted our dog, Rigby. I read this line and laughed out loud:

At the vet, I made Mike hold Rigby when she got her shot. I hid behind him so I didn’t have to watch. She did really well with the shot until it was almost over. Then she started yipping and crying. It made me feel so bad! It brought a few tears to my eyes. Then we brought her home and she slept ALL DAY.

So funny to me now. Rigby ALWAYS sleeps all day. But mostly funny because I was all maternal with my cute little dog. I also took about 100 bazillion pictures of her. And I did crazy things like this IN PUBLIC:

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Mike and I were talking to our friend Lissa this past weekend about dog ownership. We said that having a dog was the BEST thing we ever did before we had kids*. Rigby was good baby training wheels for us.

She** forced us to stop living like idiots – if we had to go to the store to buy the dog food, we realized we could buy ourselves food, too.  Fresh food, not take out, what a concept! We also had to be so much more responsible. We could no longer spontaneously take off for days at a time. We couldn’t even take off for hours at a time! We had to make sure someone was there to feed the dog, love on her, and of course, take her to the bathroom.

When it was just her, I did love rubbing in my parent friends’ faces that I was legally allowed to leave my “baby” home alone. And I’m pretty sure using a Squirt Bottle of Discipline is looked down upon by Child Protective Services, but it works great on my dog. Although don’t think I haven’t daydreamed about using it on Annie during one of her ToddlerDramaMeltdowns TM.

It took Rigby some time to adjust to sharing us with our babies. She felt protective of Madeline and often barked at people if they came near her. But once Maddie started moving, Rigby was much more wary because Maddie wasn’t gentle. I’m pretty sure Rigby remembered that because she ALWAYS kept her distance from a roaming Annabel.

Until yesterday. We arrived back in LA after being out of town for a few days. Rigby stayed behind with my cousin Leah. When we walked into the house, Rigby’s head exploded from happiness. Usually she makes a beeline for me (I’m her favorite) but this time she went straight for Annie. She jumped up on Annie several times, knocking Annie onto her butt. We all waited for a ToddlerDramaMeltdown TM, but instead Annie squealed with delight and ran after Rigby, desperate for more affection.

It was awesome. And if we hadn’t broken in our nurturing skills on Rigby, it might never have happened.

Neither would have this:

snuggling holy crap

VOLUNTARY SNUGGLING! It’s like siblings learning to love each other, but with less “stop touching me!” and more growling.

*I suppose this could also be true for cats, except I wouldn’t know. I am hideously allergic to cats – cat fur makes me feel like I’m dying. Obviously all cats are out to kill me, and therefore they are evil. Plus I’m pretty sure if a cat succeeded in killing me, it would figure out how to gloat in a very aloof, non-committal way.

**This is where I remind you all again that Rigby is a GIRL DOG. FEMALE.