We are a blended family. What does blended mean? Well,
divorce, separations, or death can cause a speed wobble on our way in life. And
many times from this suffering and dark moments, something new can be born.
Hard lessons are learnt and we are off to learn new lessons with new people. In
our case step parents, children and adopted pets!
Currently, our "little" family consists of a
little girl, her step father Uncle Michal, myself, 2 little dogs and 2 littler
hamsters. Her biological father lives in a town about 2 hours from us. He has
remarried and is a step dad to a girl and boy. I would say our setup is good
but that is a whole other topic for another day. Michal has a son from a
previous marriage, but that situation is somewhat more prickly. I have managed
to glimpse the boy at school sporting events.
Let's start with the girl who'll tell you she's almost 7
years old. Of course a mother will brag. She is bright and has such a vivid
imagination with a sensitive and kind soul. Her name is Samantha which of
course I knew would be shortened to Sam. Her biological father likes to call
her Sammy. The year is coming to an end and she is attending her 2nd last day
of school (or as she would put it "1 more sleepy till holidays") It
will be our summer break where she will spend 3 weeks of it with her father and
the remainder with us (about 5 weeks of WHAT am I going to do to keep her busy).
Just like moms refer
to the father of their children as dad, in our household we say Uncle Michal.
We spoke to Samantha about step parents. She was about 4 years old and felt
comfortable calling him Uncle Michal and her step mom Aunty. Michal came from a
blended family himself and said he was well over 18 years old before he
considered calling his step father "dad". He calls his biological
father "pa". So we left it at that. It will never be forced or spoken
of and we will leave the decision to Sam. If she ever wants to call him that or
never. We are ok with that.
Having two young dogs in our household is like having
toddlers all over again. We recently moved to a house where we could keep
animals. And all of us being dog people (sorry cat people) we adopted a Jack
Russell puppy. On his card he is Captain Jack Sparrow, but we all call him Jack
Jack. Or if he's naughty "Jack Stoutgat Sparrow". He is now 6 months
old and loves to carry things such as socks, towels, blankets, bras, panties
and basically anything he can through the doggy door and out into the yard for
the world to see. And he is a fast little bastard. Especially with your
knickers on display. And once you have caught him you must carefully pry it
from his lock jaw or you may have a holy pair of knickers too. I think I should
put him on a dog shaming post! Otherwise he is a lovely, sweet and friendly
dog. We never got him to be a guard dog, it was purely for companionship as I
spend most days home alone. So we took him to parkruns and dog walks,
socialized him with all matter of people and animals. He loves little people
and often scares the crap out of them because he runs full blast for them, but
jumps up and covers them in kisses. I am now very careful and tell people that
he just wants to greet before letting him loose. He looks as if his tail could
wag off his butt!
Soon however, we decided to be on the lookout for another
doggy. The reason being, none of us, Samantha included could keep up with Jack
Jack. He needed someone he could pester day in and day out. So I began browsing
SPCA's and Pet Centre's. Our only criteria was "small" and
"friendly". Especially towards children. Of course I have a soft spot
for all dogs, and whenever the local SPCA would post a bigger dog my heart
would turn to mush. But no, our yard would be too small. We go for walks as
often as we can (once a week if things go badly) but a big dog would just get
so frustrated. Eventually, we stumbled upon a year old Daschund. Bella (keeping
with the movie theme we called her Elizabeth Bella Swan) Her owners could no
longer keep her as they were moving.
Oh what a timid little darling with the biggest ears I had
ever seen. Slowly, after about 2 weeks her personality began to show. Now she
rules the roost. And man oh man can she bark. A rustle of leaves: bark bark
bark. A gate opens three houses down from us: bark bark bark. She is very protective
and our walks are improving her social skills tremendously as she realizes not
every human or other dog needs to be spoken to. She is an incredible jumper.
She clears the kitchen counter where she polished off some homemade burgers I
had spent the afternoon slaving over. My fiancé managed to eat his before
heading to work (on the nightshift) and when I went to get mine they were gone.
Gone. I looked at Jack who seemed forlorn. It wasn't him. Bella was nowhere to
be found. Sigh. Toast and cheese it is then. She loves to tunnel under the bed
covers, and sleep by feet. Then you get a cold, wet snoot on your toes and she
curls up to sleep. Jack prefers sleeping on top of the bed covers or next to
the bed against the wall (no idea why, possibly nice and cool/warm against the
wall). But he wakes at the crack of bloody dawn and announces to the world that
he is awake by standing on you. And not just anywhere but somewhere where his
weight is uncomfortable. Like your stomach. Or your face. Then he smells the
bed covers, finds Bella and pounces on her. Well then we are ALL AWAKE.
We are going to celebrate the hamsters first birthdays.
Carrots and Cucumber are dwarf hamsters who love to sleep all day and run
around all night. My fiancé thought our house was being broken into. It was
around midnight and he leapt from the bed giving me half a heart attack. He
grabbed a torch, a cricket bat and in his boxers dashed down the hall way.
Leaving me to think What in the Heck! He came back sheepishly and hopped back
into bed. "Bloody hamster wheel". Well now with my heart pounding in
my head and my adrenaline in the red, sleep was far off and I lay there
listening to "grrr grrr grrr....grrr grrr grr" Hamster wheels. Bloody
murder.
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