thesilversiren | You’re kidding right? (Reply)

It can’t be Saturday already. It seems like it was just Monday, even though that was one of the longest weeks I’ve had in ages.

The rundown- my oldest started the week with a cough, after a total of 7 days at preschool. It seems like it should be a record. He never spiked a fever, he’s just been coughing. Of course, it didn’t help that on Tuesday night he started clearing his throat. It was almost like a nervous tick- he wasn’t really aware that he was doing it. Of course, that did more damage to his throat than the coughing. So from Wednesday on, he basically had no voice. I didn’t pull him out of school- other than having a tiny squeaky voice, he was completely fine. His teacher agreed with me (especially since he was only there for a few hours).

I also didn’t get much sleep. The coughing would wake me up (though it didn’t wake my sons up). And if the coughing didn’t wake me up, then the nightly 3 am meowfest from Zorro would. It was worse than usual, and last night it dawned on me that Zorro was concerned about my son, so he was trying to wake me up so I’d check on him. I’m serious! When I got up to get my son something to drink, the cat would follow me downstairs to get the drink, then up to my son’s room then back into my room. All while doing an odd meow. I swear, he’s more dog than cat.

Just so this isn’t a bunch of whining, here are the things that made me laugh/smile this week:

My oldest son throwing a tantrum. I know, that makes me sound like a bad mother. But with his voice cracking because he’s hoarse and when he started jumping up and down because he couldn’t be loud, it was like watching Donald Duck right in front of me. I also only laughed on the inside.
Because I am secretly a 13 year old boy, my littlest saying dick instead of Nick (as in Nickelodeon).
The angry looks I got from moms at the private school because I wasn’t wearing capris or track suits. Nope, I wear skinny cargos and skinny jeans with thigh high boots. Also, the boots led my son to tell a classmate, “My mom? Oh she’s a pirate.”
Remembering that in addition to liking Live and Let Die, that I also enjoy Roger Moore as James Bond in The Man with The Golden Gun. Of course, my love of the movie might have more to do with Christopher Lee and the concept of the Golden Gun than Roger Moore. The movie isn’t quite as silly as some of Moore’s other Bond movies (I’m thinking of you, Octopussy), and the silliness is a little easier to overlook because Lee’s Scaramanga is an intriguing villain. Also, Maude Adams is gorgeous.
Coconut shrimp. My brother-in-law brought some home as leftovers and kindly gave them to me. Delicious!

Now, there’s one last thing that bothered me. Today, Jon Favreau (one of my favorite actors and a great director) tweeted that he got a Beaglier. Which I looked at and first assumed was some fancy gadget that I hadn’t heard about. Turns out, it’s a fancy name for a Beagle/King Charles Spaniel. Which resulted in one of the guys I love following on Twitter (@DustinChristan) tweeting:

Which did in fact make me inhale my chai latte (cold, at least).

Designer dogs bother me. Not just because they’re fancy fake names for mutts, but because they’re bred by people who are trying to make cute puppies or claim they’re making hypoallergenic dogs- when really, they don’t know what they’re doing.

The labradoodle was created by a man who was trying to breed poodles and labrador retrievers to make a hypoallergenic dog. His heart was in the right place- he wanted to make a breed of dog that could be used as an service animal for someone with allergies. While he worked for years on this, some of the “designer breeds” aren’t very new.

Responsible breeders are very familiar with the breed. Their goal is to breed good examples of the breed from appropriately distance lineages to continue to make healthy animals. They know what bad traits pop up in the breed, so when you pay for a purebred dog from a good breeder- you know that you’re getting a great quality dog. But designer dogs? They’re usually sold by someone who breeds lots of different dogs, which means that they probably aren’t looking out for defects or anything other than continuing to turn out dogs. Not only that, they’re selling them at a premium because they have a cutesy name. They’re mutts, plain and simple. Only they’re trying to pass them off as a purebred- when they aren’t recognized by any kennel clubs. You won’t know what sort of traits are being passed along. You won’t know if there are any hidden problems…

If you want a mixed breed dog, go to a shelter and adopt one. Don’t pay hundreds (and sometimes thousands) for designer breeds that are bred for size (honestly, if you see teacup in front of the breed name- run) or for adorableness. And don’t buy into the notion that anything bred with a poodle is hypoallergenic. That doesn’t always work.

Oh, yikes. I was ranting again, wasn’t I? Okay, instead… let’s end with a picture of me in my new boots!