The house is a mess....

....and I'm exhausted, but it was so great having my boy(s) visit this weekend!

So, as I wrote last time, my youngest son surprised us with a visit this past weekend, showing up on Thursday morning at 4:00 AM after driving some 12 hours from Denver with his girlfriend and almost 5 month old puppy. Our oldest son then came on Saturday, with his girlfriend and 2 puppies - a 7 month old and a 5 month old. The dogs are all big dogs. They are not little yappers. One is a full-bred Golden Retriever; the other two are mixes of German Shepherds and other breeds. My dog is a Golden also, but is relatively small, weighing around 55 pounds as she is suffering from cancer in her old age.

In any case, having them all here was terrific, but somewhat tiring when you are not used to it - mostly because keeping up with 4 frisky dogs can be a handful. Our older pooch, Lexus, who has been alone since the death of her brother and litter mate this past Thanksgiving day, was more animated than we've seen her since then. She took quite a liking to son #2's five month old Golden Retriever, kind of adopting him as her puppy. She'd play with him as only dogs do, biting each other a bit with their soft mouths, and when he got too rambunctious, barking at him to back him off. All this worked just fine until the arrival of son #1 with his two dogs.

Son #1's 7 month old dog is a playful sort and is, we think, part German Shepherd and Border Collie. He is mostly black in color - which makes him different from all the other dogs present in our domicile this weekend. He is also an instigator, much like the 5 month old Golden of son #2. Consequently, those two were playing all the time. Bear in mind here that both dogs, though puppies, are large - weighing 50 pounds or more - and are going to be even bigger as they reach adulthood. So when they play, they can move entire tables with their tails.

My old dog watched this playing with a cautious eye, and participated with all three of the other dogs. To a point. However, being the "Elder", she also is the wiser, and, as I mentioned earlier, she had adopted the 5 month old Golden as her boy. So, when things got particularly wild, my dog would intervene. Especially when it was between the 7 month old black German Shepherd mix and "Her boy", the 5 month old Golden. More than once, she bared her teeth and barked, when those two were mixing it up. She was concerned that the Shepherd was getting the best of her boy, and might be hurting him. We think. Or, as my wife surmised, she might be a closet racist. Let's hope not. I taught my kids not to be bigoted, and hope that lesson was passed on to my dogs. But you just never know, I guess.

The weekend was terrific though, despite the occasional flare-up of the dogs. My son, his girlfriend, and their 5 month old puppy left early this morning for Denver. I know I won't see them for several months. It truly hasn't been until the last few years that I know how my parents must have felt when I left home, moved to another state, and visited infrequently. Phone calls are nice; and the ability to use the camera on a computer helps you to see and talk to them, but nothing - absolutely nothing - beats the ability to hug your kids in person, and see what fine adults they've grown up to be. Unfortunately, it also makes it harder to say goodbye each time they leave.

Old Fart Mike