Day 49

Siblings. We love them. We hate them. We are proud of them. We are jealous of them. I think maybe they are a preparation for marriage- you learn how to cope with annoying behavior, scream and fight at the top of your lungs, yet at the end of the day sleep together in the same room with all forgiven.

My two dogs are no different. And although they don't come from the same blood (obviously...), they remind me so much of my two oldest kids at times. The older two are only 2-3 years apart, so that was just the right amount of age difference when they were little to absolutely drive one another crazy...

"He's touching me"..... "No I'm not!"

 Oh how I wish I had a quarter for every time I heard that. The oldest would dance around his little sister, just out of reach and every once in a while stick his finger out like he was going to poke her. My little dog does the same thing- runs in circles around the Mastiff, nipping at a heel, then an ear- all the while the Mastiff looking at me with eyes that say, "He's touching me!".

Then there's the time the oldest accidentaly hit his sister in the forehead with a baseball bat. She came around the corner at the same time he was practicing his home run swing. I was in the kitchen and all I heard was an unfamiliar "THUNK"....followed by a long pause.....then the screaming began. When I raced out of the kitchen, my step-daughter (I think about 7 or 8 at this time) was holding her forehead and crying, while the oldest held a baseball bat in one hand and a look on his face that was a cross between "Oh shit I just accidentally hurt my sister" and "Oh shit I'm in so much trouble". The other day the mutt and Mastiff were playing, and all of a sudden the mutt yipped. I looked over and the Mastiff had the mutt's entire head in his mouth. He looked like the cat who just got caught with the family's pet canary in his mouth. I know he didn't mean to hurt the mutt, but sometimes sibling rough-housing gets rougher than you meant it to. Most people who grew up with brothers or sisters have at least one scar on their body related to an even with a sibling- my husband's revolves around a motorcycle and a meat freezer...don't ask.

But at the end of the day, if someone even THOUGHT about threatening or being mean to his sister, my oldest would go on the defense of the same person he swore 10 minutes before that was the most annoying presence in his life. They are bonded in a way siblings just....are. And so are my dogs. They don't have very many moments in which they actually cuddle- usually they are tolerant of each other, but keep to their own space.

I thought this pic does a good job of showing that although siblings don't always get along, every once in a while there's one of those bonding moments that reminds you that your'e family- no matter your differences.