Spending Up a Storm

Ding-dong! Yep, another Amazon package just landed on my front porch. That seems to be a regular occurrence at our house since we adopted Bristol and Sam. We've ordered crates, harnesses, Nylabones, several Kongs and Busy Buddy toys, a puppy play pen, and even potty training jingle bells for the doors.

The puppies HAD to have matching hedgehogs because, well, HEDGEHOGS!
Ever since my kids and I had a pet named Miss Tiggywinkle, I've had a soft spot for hedgehogs. 

Amazon is not my only supplier of puppy paraphernalia. It seems I wander down the pet supplies aisle whenever I go to Walmart, and occasionally, a fun toy or two will make its way into my cart. When I go to Goodwill, I stock up on extra fleece blankets, and stuffed animals. We have the most spoiled puppies on the planet. (Unless we count Margaret's Captain Jack. He receives a Bark Box package in the mail every month; we haven't gone THAT far. Yet.)

Of all the toys we provide for them, do you know what they play with most? The puppies love this empty minced onion container, and old Powerade bottles. Bristol is also fascinated with his tail. Go figure.

When I was a kid, I was the same way. My parents would go to all the trouble of finding the very thing I wanted from the Sears & Roebuck Wish Book at Christmas, but after all the presents were opened, they laughed that the things we kids seemed to love the most were the boxes the presents came in. 

One of the things I bought for potty training were jingle bells to hang on the doorknobs to our front and back doors. At first, Sami thought she could ring them every time she wanted to go outside to play. I felt like I was living an extended version of the boy who cried wolf. If she went to the trouble to ring the bell, who was I to question her motives? I just made a quick assessment if her trip was for business or pleasure, and hurried her back inside if it was the latter. 

Bristol has been a little harder to read when it comes to the bells. Some days he whines, some days he brushes up against the bells, and some days, he just let's loose wherever he is. One day, I videoed the puppies playing with the jingle bells, and sent the clip to my kids with the message, "Think they really need to go potty? Or are they just teething on the bells?"

Moments later, I followed up my text with, "Well, color me embarrassed, Bristol just peed on the floor. I guess it was urgent. I am a very slow learner."

We have so many friends offering us advice for tried and true methods to help us with issues that have come up since our world was turned upside down when we added puppies to our lives. The toys should occupy their little minds, and give their mouths a good workout while they're teething, and give our furniture a break. I just want to raise good puppies who grow up to be good adults, without destroying our house in the process. 

Our puppies have completed their preschool classes, and next we're going to Puppy Kindergarten!

When all of this puppy business settles down, and the spending frenzy slows, I think the thing I will realize gave us the greatest return on our investment is the Puppy Professor classes, and the time we spend playing and working with Bristol and Sami. Just like when our children were younger, it's always possible to spend too much money, but we could never spend too much time with them.