Pets, Foreign Parents and Babies

Before I begin on my rant, I want you to keep this question on mind: “are you going to get rid of the dogs when your daughter is born”?... If you’re American, ie. born in western society then you would probably answer this with…NO!!!.…. exactly. Every time you scroll throw any pictures that have to do with the American dream you probably see a family: mother, father, a few kids and a dog; most likely a golden retriever or poodle. Right… Or just look at any picture of the All-American family… you know the presidential family.

Take a look at Obamas or Bush’s family portrait both families have a dog in their family picture. To the Americans it’s a no brainer, dogs are part of the family. BUT!...oh yes there is an exception… To foreigners ie. my people and maybe some of your people “they are not”. If you’ve traveled outside of the country to third-world countries like Dominican Republic. You would find a dog outside probably running wild in the streets with no more than an ounce of fat on him. Not saying that the dog is in great shape, quite the opposite. The dog is probably starving to death. If this happened in the great U.S that owner would be arrested on the spot. I remember a few years back my uncle came from Dominican Republic to visit, and we somehow got on the subject of allergies. I told him that my dog has allergies and sensitive skin so I have to have him on meds and feed him special food ie. expensive dog. Without blinking, he looked at me as if I were an idiot. He said: Tie your dog up to a tree and feed him plantain peels, that’ll fix him. To this day, I have yet to find what that means outside of something unpleasant.

Okay back to the point. My wife and I are currently on a life changing train. We are expecting our first child, a beautiful baby girl. Each visit my parents make to my house, they never forget to ask if we are keeping the dogs. Instead, they ask my wife and me the same question in a varying elaborate ways. Without skipping a beat. Some times before even bringing up the question, they might start off with an extreme story of dogs attacking babies. My wife has gotten pretty good at come backs lately. I think the last time she had a Facebook post, you know one of those that has about a dozen pictures of how dogs save peoples life’s in extreme cases. Like: “dog saves mountain climber stuck between rocks for six days!” or “dog calls police after owner has stroke”.

So what’s the answer to the almighty question… only time will tell, for now we will simply go with the flow and hope for the best.