Get a dog!

When your kids don´t keep you awake at nights any more, leave chocolate finger prints on the sofa and ketchup finger prints on the windows, break your video player by stuffing it with Lego or your LP player by winding a tape around it to check if it plays music that way, too: Get a dog!

Our Nina has so far eaten THREE TV controls and an uncountable pair of shoes and slippers, not to mention sofa pillows, socks and my mobile phone charger.

She keeps her food bowl strictly for that boring dog food, while anything delicious - like spaghetti Bolonese, squid leftovers or moussaka is dragged out of the bowl and across the living room floor to be enjoyed in the privacy of her private quarters, her bed. But at least she licks off whatever she spills on the floor afterward - I can´t remember my kids doing that.

Yesterday, I gave her a bath - which she hates. Kids might hate having a bath, too, but at least you know that will pass as soon as their interest in the other sex takes off. Or same sex, for that´s sake. And kids don´t run out while still wet and roll themselves in sand, then shake it all off on your newly washed kitchen floor. (Or do they?)

Nina loves us dearly. Thinking about it, she loves all kind of people dearly - burglars, rapists and serial killers, alike. If you want to break into my house, no need to worry about the dog.
(Actually, the doors are always open, so no need to break in, either.)

She´s too chicken to chase anything bigger than a kitten, but she does bark. Actually, she can bark all night, and then I mean all night, at all the dangers lurking in the dark: Stray cats, stray dogs, our neighbor´s horse (he looks scary when there´s no light), lizards, turtles, trolls, ghosts - you name it. If an ant crosses the yard, Nina will bark at it.

Like I said - when you don´t have kids disrupting your sleep - get a dog.