A boy and his dog

Our "child" before our child was our dog. His name is Charlie (Charles, Chuck, Chuckles, etc.) He is a Golden Doodle (go ahead, laugh...everyone else does at the name of this breed.) We love him quite a bit. Charlie is somewhat large. He weighed in at about 75 lbs. at his last appointment. Some (his "aunt") call him the "amazing horse dog." Whatever. We were a bit worried about introducing a 20 lb. baby to such a large creature. Since the first day, Jaden hasn't had one bit of hesitation in his dealings with Charlie. Shouldn't he? I think I would be scared if a giant muppet were all of a sudden introduced into my life at 8 months of age. Or, maybe, I would be just really excited. Jaden chose the latter route.

Charlie tolerates the child. It's hard on the dog, you know? All of sudden another quadriped (at least for a few more weeks) is zipping around putting his hands in your food, trying to chew on your bones, and monopolizing your parent's time. And, when you try to retaliate by, say, taking one of the new one's toys, what happens? You get scolded and ignored. So, Charlie's adjustment is taking a little longer than Jaden's in this budding new relationship. I'm willing to bet, by the time Jaden is toddling around in the backyard, that he won't have a better friend than Snuffleupagus, I mean, Charlie.