Learn from others

I have always been the kind of person that easily learned from the mistakes of others. I think it was something that was taught to me by my mother. When my brothers and I would get caught doing something of questionable intelligence our first line of defense would be blame someone else. This always brought my mother to say, "If (insert name here) jumped off a cliff, are you going to jump, too?" After hearing Mom say that several thousand times, I started to understand and have made it a pattern for my life.

With that in mind, I have decided to try to help you guys. I might have made a mistake. My family disagrees with me that it is a mistake; however I'm pretty sure it is a mistake.

Monner's family has four dogs, four BIG (and getting bigger) dogs. Let me break down why that is a mistake.

Our kitchen has 70 square feet of space in which to walk. With all five humans are in the kitchen (each occupying about 2-1/2 sq. ft/ea.) that leaves about 57-1/2 sq. ft. of walking space. Now her come the dogs. Each dog occupies 4-1/2 sq. ft. (I have done the math)

With all four dogs that leaves about 39 sq. ft. of space in which to walk. Sounds like plenty of space doesn't it? Now consider the space is constantly changing. Being in our kitchen is like being at "boot camp", climbing over things, running around and dodging obstacles.

These dogs are in the house at least 50% of the time. Seldom are all four dogs in the house at the same time. The most common sound in our house is me asking "will someone let that dog out?"

The puppies sleep outside. At least for a couple hours, then one of them will scratch at the door to be let in the house. Another two hours, the other puppy wants in the house. That's OK though because by then the first puppy wants back out. The adult dogs sleep inside. They won't sleep outside unless we move the couch out there.

Should I decide to go outside, I am forced to sneak. Otherwise, I have at least three dogs making a break for the door to go with me. Emma doesn't need to break for the door. She calmly asks to be let out into her pen, climbs the fence and she's gone.

Dog food? How about 30 pounds of adult dog food a week? Twenty five pounds of puppy food in the same period.

If your mother should ask, "Just because Monner has four dogs, are you going to get four dogs, too?" Think about the mistakes of others.

OK, you caught me, I love the dogs. I just don't want you to get as many dogs as we have, then I would need to get another one.

See-the dogs left the door open….again..

Our crazy lives!

Monner