Raising dogs and cats requires a lot of time and care, including space for them - Illustration: AN DU
For weeks, my daughter Bong wanted to go to her neighbor Tit's grandmother's house because there was a litter of newborn puppies, all of them so cute. She repeatedly begged her parents to let her adopt a dog or a cat. Of course, I didn't agree.
I declared: "Parents can't even take care of children, let alone have the energy to take care of dogs and cats." She insisted: "I don't need parents to take care of me. I just need parents to agree to let me adopt them. I can take care of them. With Phuong Anh (the name of the oldest sister in the family) to help, parents don't have to worry."
Dogs don't sleep, people don't sleep either.
And then, faced with the determination and touching sincerity of my 5-year-old daughter, I reluctantly bought a 1-month-old Poodle-Dog hybrid. This breed of dog is not too big so it does not take up much space to keep, and it also does not eat much rice.
The first meal, I brought the puppy a small bowl of rice with some stir-fried pork but my daughter snatched it back.
It said: "Dogs are not allowed to eat rice". The girl spoke very seriously: "Because we cannot brush the dog's teeth every day, we cannot feed them rice and salty foods. These foods will make the dog's mouth smell bad. I asked Phuong Anh to order dog food, diapers, shower gel, backpacks, and toys for the dog. We bought them with lucky money, so don't worry about spending money, Mom."
Ms. Phuong Anh, who lives nearby, added: "If the dog eats seeds, its poop will form into a mold, making it easier to clean up, Mom."
I was amazed at how much the kids knew. It turned out they had Googled and researched how to raise and care for dogs from forums and groups.
The first night, I put the puppy in a stainless steel cage in the kitchen. Strange in the house, it did not sleep, barked loudly. No one in the house could sleep. Finally, at 1am, I had to carry the cage and the dog up to our bedroom to calm it down. Only when it slept could we sleep.
On Monday night, the dog changed his mind, refused to sleep in the cage, and wanted to be let out. My house is in the city, we don't have a garden or a yard, if we let it out, we don't know where it will go, and how will we clean up after it poops? But the youngest child insisted: "Dogs won't poop while they sleep, don't worry, Mom."
In the morning, my husband found a pile right next to the sofa. In a hurry to go to work, both of us had to clean and tidy up for half an hour.
Husband and wife take turns taking care of the dog, walking it, and cleaning it.
The next day, I noticed that the dog smelled bad and decided to give it a bath. My youngest daughter volunteered to give the dog a bath, even though it normally doesn’t even clean itself.
My son bathed the dog. After the bath, the dog was dried with a soft cotton towel and its fur was carefully blow-dried. But when I entered the bathroom… oh no. My son bathed the dog in the bathtub that my husband and I had saved up for a long time before daring to buy. He even used my perfumed shower gel because he discovered that "Mom's shower gel smells better than the shower gel for dogs."
In the following days, in order to avoid having to bathe the dog in the tub with me and clean up the mess my daughter made, my husband and I took turns bathing the dog.
Then some afternoons, instead of going to the fitness center to do yoga, I switched to taking my dog to the park with my child. My child was very happy. The dog was also very happy, only I felt sorry for the yoga class I had paid and had to give up.
My husband, who is already a busy man, is now even busier because he has a new task: cleaning up dog poop. My daughter loves dogs but she doesn’t know how to clean up and doesn’t clean up properly, so her parents have to do it for her.
After nearly 2 weeks of raising a dog, both my husband and I were exhausted. Adding a puppy was like adding a child, worrying about feeding, sleeping, bathing, and walking the dog every day.
If your house is too cramped and you don't have enough time or patience, you should think carefully before adopting any animal.
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