Candy is Dandy, but Sugar is the Perfect Revenge

When Julia was about to turn 8 she decided she wanted a bunny. We had already gone through the hamster thing and JJ (Julia Junior) was buried in the backyard with notes of love and adoration written all over the fence by Julia and her friends.

On a Thursday night around 10:30 pm about three weeks before Julia’s birthday. Brian informed me in the “Oh by the way manner” that only a man can do, that he was bringing home a bunny for Julia the next day. He was getting it for free and it came with a cage and everything! I was furious – I didn’t want any more rodents in my house and the fact that he “forgot” to mention it until it was too late seemed just a little too convenient.

The next day the girls and I were having lunch with Samantha’s grade 4 teacher. It came out in conversation that they were heading to Las Vegas for 2 weeks and had nowhere for their beloved shih tzu to go. So naturally I offered to take him for her. I told the girls that we would tell daddy that we were keeping him for good. That they were giving him to us, wouldn’t that be a funny trick to play on daddy? They agreed and were delighted with the idea of pulling one over on their dad. I’ll see you that rabbit and raise you a dog!

That night, as promised Brian came home with the cutest bunny in existence. He rang the doorbell and I sent Julia to answer it. She squealed with delight, she was thrilled her very own bunny! Wow could the day get any better, Sugar was coming for a sleepover and now she had her very own bunny! In her excitement she burst out with “Daddy, we’re going to baby-sit Sugar and now he’ll get to meet my new bunny”.

Well that certainly backfired now didn’t it. I had somehow gotten myself a dog sitting gig and a rabbit and I didn’t even get the pleasure of terrifying my husband first. I didn’t even like dogs – or rabbits or anything fury for that matter.

I had never had a pet in my life (not counting the cat I had as a child. He only lasted 2 weeks and his only purpose was to try to get rid of a stubborn mouse. He scratched me on the face on his last day at our house – he must have known he was getting the boot) so I was not looking forward to the dog sitting thing.

Sugar came to stay with us for a week in August and my life hasn’t been the same since. He was 10 years old and very spoiled. He ate better than we did. His owner had prepared weeks worth of food (chicken breast with rice - I had to put a slice of ham on the bottom to encourage him to eat the rice and chicken). My biggest challenge was keeping Brian away from Sugar’s food. He couldn’t figure out where all these leftovers had come form. Sugar snacked on pistachios, which I shelled for him. On his first night with us, Brian ate all of Sugars pistachios - I had to buy more for Brian and Sugar to share.

On Sugar’s first night with us, I awoke to find him pacing in the hallway, making all kinds of noises. I woke Brian up – “what does he want – why is he doing that?” In a haze of sleep he informed me that Sugar probably had to go to the bathroom. Really, well I can do that; I’ll just take him to the backyard. So down the stairs we went. Sugar went outside, sniffed around lifted his leg and went for a pee against our maple tree. Wow – I was amazed that he had somehow communicated this need to me. I went upstairs and woke Brian up again and shared my astonishment at how smart Sugar was. Surely we were in the presence of four-legged brilliance. He must be gifted. Brian sleepily informed me that all dogs do that. NO WAY! was all I could come up with. Could it be true? Could these fury friends be able to make their needs known so easily? I was starting to come around. I could see a glimpse of what people were talking about when they said they were dog people. I took me the rest of the week to fully convert, but by the time Sugar left I was changed. I started referring to my self as a “recently converted dog person”. Two months later we adopted Winston – my first pet, it was love at first sight.