The Dog Post

I try not to say much about our dog, Chloe; if there’s one thing more boring than reading about somebody’s kids, it’s reading about somebody’s dog. Nevertheless, I’ve actually heard requests from people who want to know more about Chloe. These requests mostly come from Ellie’s coworkers who read this blog when she’s trying to show off her family. This blog is a good way to impress family, friends, and the rest of the world with our family’s exploits, without having to invite them into our home where they’d immediately be pounced upon by our dog and too distracted by her ploys for attention to comprehend any of our adventures. So by popular demand, I give you Chloe.



Chloe is an American Eskimo. As you can see, her fur is pure white, except for the everyday grime that accumulates from many trips to the backyard, and the occasional food particle, in this case barbecue sauce above her left eye, she collects while hovering under our feet at mealtime. She stands about knee high, weighs about 25 pounds, and looks like she’s about 40 pounds of canine thanks to a deceptively fluffy fur coat. She’s about seven years old, but we’ve only had her for about five. We got her as a rescue dog; a group of dedicated dog lovers from a rescue league teamed up to drive her in 100 to 200 miles stretches all the way from North Carolina to Iowa over one weekend.

Chloe’s original family gave her up because they were having a baby. I’m not sure if they surrendered her because they wouldn’t have enough time or resources to care for a dog and a baby, something I could relate to, or if they were afraid to have a dog around a young child, something I don’t quite understand. Obviously you don’t want to have an aggressive animal around a young child, or around your house period in my opinion, but banishing all pets for fear they might hurt your child is shortsighted; babies can’t do much to provoke an animal until they’re mobile, and most animals are too scared of children to let them get close anyway. I’m off my soapbox now.

Whatever reason her original family had for giving her up, I’m glad they did. Chloe is a pretty good dog around children. She’s not quite to the point where she’ll let tots hang off her fur, but with a little more training she might get there for the twins. She mostly tries to avoid the children, but when Abbie corners her and tries to touch her with potentially fur-pulling fingers, she takes it in stride, especially since she learned to distract Abbie by licking her hands. When Abbie was learning to walk, I used Chloe’s child-aversion to our advantage by letting Abbie chase her around the house. Chloe will occasionally approach Abbie, especially if she has food or a toy in hand, although the toy doesn’t always work well since Chloe doesn’t realize how adept she is at knocking over small children.

By far the dog’s biggest asset is her cleaning ability. Whenever Abbie drops food, Chloe is right there to pick it up, although Abbie occasionally needs a little help to “drop” something. The only time I ever have to pick up a Tasteeo is when we’re visiting someone’s house. Abbie understands the dog’s hunger, and sometimes aids her by giving her the nasty food we just gave her to eat, things like carrots, or pizza.

Of course she has her drawbacks. If Abbie pushes her too hard, she’ll growl, especially if she’s not feeling good. We have full faith that the dog would never intentionally hurt her, but we’d rather not test that faith. Chloe also barks at every organic creature, real or imagined, that comes near our home. This can make naptimes difficult. She also jumps on people that are nice enough to come into our home, but at least that gives visitors something else to focus on when we bore them with stories about our kids.