Don’t Call It Puppy Love
Reflecting on the depths of a mother's love
by Cheryl Rosenberg, posted on January 24th, 2010 in The Love Issue
‹ Previous Feature | The Love Issue | Next Feature ›
I still tell the story about how I saw his picture on the internet and it was love at first sight.
Sound shallow? Easy for you to say, since you didn’t see those eyes, those ears, that fur. That’s right, fur. He was a dog. My first baby. Gable.
Then a few months later, we got our second, Garbo, a mutt we rescued from a shelter.
I guess my husband and I were like a lot of newly-betrothed couples. We’d just bought our first home, and before we started a family, we had our practice kids: dogs.We referred to ourselves as Mommy and Daddy. We took them to the dog park to play with their doggie friends. They slept in our bed, Gable snuggling between us and sometimes resting his head so I could feel his warm breath on my face.
I got pregnant three years later. And I worried. How could I possibly love a child as much as I love these dogs?
And then I had my son.
I did not expect the fierceness of my feelings for this tiny creature. He is all I lived and breathed. And then came my daughter less than two years later. And finally, last year, another little boy.
Through it all, the dogs have put up with ear pulls, tail yanks, wearing hats, boas and other fancy accessories from my daughter’s collection. They have been locked in the home office when guests are here. Their food dishes got moved to the garage and sometimes we forget to let them back in for a good long while after they’ve finished eating.
They don’t get taken to the park anymore.
We still love them, of course. They get plenty of scratches under the chin and an occasional game of fetch in the back yard.
The dogs are a part of our family for sure. They are past nine years old now and we know our time with them is limited. And I will be crushed and will certainly miss them when they are gone.
But there is no comparison to the depth of love you feel for your human kids. Just the thought of losing a child sucks the wind out of my lungs. When childless people lose a pet and say it was like a child to them, I get it. I do. Still, I think to myself, “but it’s NOT a child. Unless you have one, you can’t understand.”
There is no love quite like of a parent for a child. Especially when they’re small and still need you so much.
Dogs are loyal and they are always, always happy to see you. They don’t care if you’re having a bad hair day (or year) or if you’ve never lost your baby weight or simply had a horrendous day. They don’t fuss if their dinner is from the red bag instead of the blue one or if you watch the news instead of Teen Titans on TV. They never sass.
Then again, they never call you Mommy. They can’t throw their arms around your neck in the fiercest of hugs just ‘cause. They never sleepily say “I love you” as you tuck their Princess blanket around them.
You don’t stand at their door and watch them sleep, as your heart grows to the size of China. But your dog just might stand with you as you watch your other babies dream.
