Hi,
loved your dog and kid stories. My mother likes to tell everyone about me as a child, especially when I am overheard saying things like, "How many times have told you to ask the owner before you touch a dog?" to my own children ( my son has an almost uncanny link with dogs, cats, horses and birds). She will tell anyone who listens how, at the age of three I insisted we go into the local pet shop to look at the animals. This sort of thing was embarrassing to my mother as she is slightly afraid of animals, but intensly dislikes caged animals. On this occasion she relented and I was allowed in. The owner of the shop asked if any assistance was needed as soon as we entered and my poor mother, an honest woman, tried to explain without causing offence that it was only the whim of her three year old daughter that brought her to last place on the planet she would choose to be. Add to this the fact that we had recently moved to Cornwall from the outskirts of Glasgow and the two parties involved could barely understand each other and you will see that this took some time!
The shop owner was a kindly soul and took pity but warned my mother to keep me away from her St. Bernard who had given birth to a litter of pups behind the counter two days before. My mother reached for my hand at this point, only to find me gone.
A search by both women found me lying against the back of said bitch watching as her four new puppies suckled!
Again the shop owner took pity and supplied my mother with a large brandy!!