Children are the orgasm of life. Just as you did not know what an orgasm was before you had one, nature does not let you know how great children are until you actually have them.
~ Lululemon
Sure – I don’t exactly have any children right at this present time, but I find that I am beginning to realize what having a child might be like. Over the past few weeks my life has been altered slightly due to adopting Lucy, the kitten I found in the tree a bit ago. I now have to budget in cat food and kitty litter. My daily schedule revolves around her needs of when she needs to be fed, petted and played with. All of a sudden I have become much more aware of where I put my things in order to avoid certain possessions being knocked over, chewed on or completely broken beyond repair. My concentration on tasks is minimal as Lucy has become a constant fur ball of distractions that keeps me entertained from the moment I wake to when I go to sleep at night.
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| Lucy - my paper bag princess |
And then there is Jess. In a way, it has been easy as in the past month or so Jess has adopted me as another caregiver other than Steve & Lynne. She has always seemed to enjoy me taking her on runs, but in the past few weeks she has taken on the new behavior of jumping the fence to come to sit at my back door and wait to be let in. Made things a bit frantic at work when we suddenly realized Jess was gone from the backyard and was nowhere to be seen. Wasn’t until I got home for lunch that I had realized what she had done.
The interesting bit was introducing Jess and Lucy. Lucy was curious and wanted to play. Jess was petrified at this black fur ball that was batting its paws at her face. It took a bit of coaxing and patience and now the two are near inseparable, playing together whenever they can. We have had many play-dates where they chase each other around the house and even play wrestle.
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| Jess after destroying a stuffed toy |
But all that has changed with my newest addition of Noushka. Noushka is an Alaskan Malamute who's owner has had the opportunity of a lifetime to go and do guiding for climbers on Mt. Everest. So he is going to be gone for the next few months and asked me to babysit - I said yes.
All was well in getting to know Noushka and her getting to know me - but that is where it has ended. It has quickly become apparent that Noushka does not do well around strangers, small animals, lots of kids, big animals and pretty well anything in between. Constantly feeling the need to prove she is the alpha dog around the place, she has taken the tendency to growl and bark at anyone that comes near my house. Not exactly ideal when my house is on the camp property.
Things are even worse when Activity Hanmer does one of their activities out front of my house as Noushka has taken this as an opportunity to howl, cry, bark and growl for the full 2hrs they are out there. The worst bit is that I can't seem to figure out how to teach her that that is not okay as she immediately stops the behavior when she sees me around.
And then there's the animals. Since being with me for a little over a week, she has already seriously tried to eat Lucy twice. I've even tried to introduce her to Jess with no success. Noushka has taken her on as fresh meat without even as much as a how-do-you-do.
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| Noushka at the top of Mt. Isobel |
It's saddening really - it's not as though it is Noushka's fault as she just simply hasn't been trained to know better. So it's become this tricky juggling act to figure out how to spend time with all three animals but in environments where none of them are feeling threatened by Noushka's behavior. But the reality is that I can't live like that in the long term - and either can the camp - so we'll see what happens.
All I want is the best quality of life for Noushka and to me that does not mean tying her up 24/7 with a muzzle on. She deserves better than that and I hope there is some spectacular way of figuring out how to get her that. And as all good things take time I just don't know how much time I have before she simply HAS to go.
