On pups and blog posts

So I'm going to break the first rule I set myself when I started this blog: no posts on kids or pets. This blog was going to be totally professional: intelligent, witty, insightful thoughts on books and writing only, no cutesy photos or boasting about how smart and lovely my kids are (which of course they are). Seeing as I'm a little low on the intelligent, witty and insightful at the moment, and it's been a looooong time between posts, I thought I'd write about what's really filling my days right now. And covering me in hair. And waking me up waaaaay too early in the mornings.
For some reason there currently seems to be a lot of women around me expecting babies. I don't know if this is just something you notice when your 'cluck' instincts so easily tip into overdrive at the sight of a swollen belly, or whether there really is something in the water in Melbourne right now, but at around about the end of May I expect to be delivering home-cooked meals to mamas all around Melbourne, including to my own baby sister who is expecting not one, but TWO little bambinos!
I'm figuring the purchase of a pup might be a reaction to this recent outbreak of fecundity around me. Fortunately I have just enough sense to override my own terribly out of control maternal instincts to save myself from going there again. (What are you, NUTS, Sally?! Your youngest is almost in high school!) And I like to kid myself that having a puppy is ALMOST like having a baby.
Except you don't have to breastfeed them every two hours.
And they poo outside. (Mostly.)
And you can still fit in a shower, breakfast, and even a little blog-writing on a good morning.
But, boy, they still take up a lot of time! And here are some other things I've learnt in the three weeks since we adopted our hairy baby.
Don't wear stockings.
Or wool jumpers.
Or anything new for that matter.
Toilet training is AWFUL in rainy weather. (Though a trampoline can be a useful shelter.)
Just like children, puppies only ever fall sick on Sundays and public holidays.
Having said all that, here is something I truly hadn't expected:
It is so very easy to fall in love with a puppy.