"The Joys of 4-Legged Family Members" - Time Out #131

As we are well aware, life is full of joys.

Some of the thrills come in small packages, some middle size, others large, and a few jumbo.

Those of us who have been blessed with children fully understand all that is demanded with raising our younger offspring. Laughing, crying, whispering, screaming, remembering, and loving are all words that may be used to describe life's interactions among family members.

As parents, our children pass through life's stages of birth, toddling, kindergarten, grade school, middle & junior high, puberty, high school, and then off on a life away from home, either to college, the working world or some other calling. This last step usually (?) involves leaving the home base, and entering their own world away from the security of mom & dad.

Once the last child has left home for the big, outside world, then the "empty nest" years descend on John and Jane Q. Public average American couple.

Yes, it happened to my bride, Debbie, and me, too, dear folks of Our Town and far beyond.

Since it has been several years since our Michelle, Allan and Robbie departed our nest, our emptiness has been partially filled with our critters. Our 4-legged family has consisted of Baby, Colonel, Puppy and Sadie (i.e., our 4 pugs) and, Jack, our elder and super cool cat. As this aforementioned group slowly crossed over the beautiful "rainbow bridge", we acquired the elderly black male pug duo, Sam, and his lifelong companion son, Amos. This dynamic duo provided several wonderful years of life with Ms. Debbie and me, until they left us last spring, and we were totally without 4-legged close family! For about 6 months, we had a major empty nest!

That void in our home certainly was weird, since, I believe, we had been living 36 years in Our Town, and always had at least one, 4-legged household member around to keep us company.

Fast forward to last September.

After much thought, discussion and research, my bride and I decided we absolutely had to get not 1 dog, BUT TWO (2)!

AND YOUNG PUPPIES, TOO!

Wow. Did we actually do that???

Enter Spanky (yes, from "Little Rascal" fame), a fawn/white-colored male French bulldog obtained from far off Broken Bow, and Tux (as in tuxedo), the appropriately colored black male pug, with white front feet and a large white blaze on his chest. We drove to Wichita, KS, to purchase this little guy.

Both boys were old enough to leave their mothers, but not by much. From day one in our home, MUCH time and attention has been given to these playful guys, and 95% of the exhaustive crate training for "necessary" functions, feeding, cleaning, and trips to the vet, have been successfully accomplished by my bride's dedication to them. My minor role has been playing with the "boys" as their grandma's husband, grandpa!

Ms. Debbie has made rock stars of Spanky and Tux, with her frequent social media postings, including appropriate videos and humorous audio commentaries. Many folks in Our Town actually ask me when they see me out-and-about, just when my bride is going to post another internet item regarding our boys? I always reply, we never really know just what future surprises the boys may have planned for their grandparents!

So, our 2-legged children aren't living under our home roof any longer. That is true due to time, and their growing up.

Hopefully, Spanky and Tux will help us stay young in our hearts for a long, long time. They are such keepers!