I want to tell you about my first world problems. And then I’ll tell you why I am grateful, I promise.
One: We have an old dog. Like one-hundred years old in dog years. Old. And he acts old. And he has old man pee. As in, he has to go to the bathroom a lot. And right away. So if you don’t let him out right away, he pees on the floor. And in our shiny new house, with tons of wood flooring and tile, he prefers the carpet. Anyway … I heard him ringing the bells at the back door (genius, right?) and knew he needed to be let out. Me being me, I got distracted and forgot to let him out. As I was turning lights out and giving Charlie Dog his final evening potty break, I remembered that I had forgot and made a mental note to go find his pee puddle …. I turned from the door to walk into the kitchen and found the pee puddle …. with both bare feet. Pretty sure I still have urine between my toes. Gross.
Two: I want to be pregnant so badly that I wrote in a professional bio that we were a family of five and didn’t catch the mistake for days, even though I was obsessively writing and rewriting the document.
Three: It is 90 plus degrees in our family room and I don’t want to call the repairman because we just spent a jillion dollars at the vet but I think the kiddos might have heatstroke if I don’t fix it.
Four: My Frank Cat died today. This one was rough. And I said I wouldn’t put it on the interweb but I lied. He was my cat, the one Husband pretended to hate but secretly loved. He had a weird habit of trying to nurse your ears and he thought we bought the crib just for him to have a super soft king-sized kitty bed, but he slept on my head and made me feel safe through an almost unbearably hard first deployment. I am all red and puffy eyed and wondering if J Girl will remember me crying this much over Frank the way I remember my momma crying over Woofy the dog, only the coolest poodle ever to live. Anyway, Frank – it was unexpected – we think he might have gotten into something poisonous. But the vet was with him when he died and for my sweet, snuggly, people-loving cat, I’m glad he wasn’t alone. But I wish it was me that was with him.
So, after a roaring case of the Mondays …. here is why I am grateful ….
Our beloved little dog is aging also, and showing signs of it. He is on three medications. When I get down about this, and a lump starts to form in my throat thinking about the inevitable future, I remember that there are many PEOPLE in third world countries without the luxury of access to medicines. Our problems are indeed problems of luxury, but still, that is what we know, so we can’t deny that our problems are truly problematic to us.