College Life: Being a Mom for a Fur Baby

Katherine Daniel ~ Editor in Chief

If anyone knows me, I love my fur baby. You might ask, what is a fur baby? Well, fur baby to me is my dog. Some people might have fur babies that are dogs, cats, or really anything with fur. Though I love my fur baby, being a dog mom is hard. It is not all fun and games and it is not as easy as everyone thinks it is. It is definitely fun, but getting woken up at the crack of dawn every morning, occasionally getting humped, and sometimes having your shoe strings eaten is some of things that are not fun. It is also hard to leave to go to classes knowing my baby is home and all alone. I love my fur baby, and he definitely shows me that I seriously do not want to have kids anytime soon. Here are some of the duties you should expect from being a dog mom.

1.     Training your pup. This is very hard when all they want to do is play and sleep when they are babies. You have to teach them to pee/poop on the puddle pads and make sure they have no accident or teach them to go outside and pee/poop. Also, teaching them basic commands is definitely hard too, like “sit” and “stay.” It is definitely hard at first and you will get a little irritated with them, but give it some time and they will be doing better in no time.
2.     Feeding them. There are specific times throughout the day that they are hungry. For me, my baby likes to get up around 7:30 a.m. to eat his breakfast. Now, when I do not have class until 1:00 p.m. on Mondays, and he is up at the crack of dawn, it kind of sucks, but I’ll do anything for him. I usually give him wet food for breakfast and dinner and he has dry food throughout the day when I have to go to class and work in the evenings.
3.     Making sure they get a ton of exercise. I have to make sure I take my little one outside and let him run around to get some exercise when I get home from classes. He loves the outdoors, but we tend to run around and get exercise in the apartment when I am throwing his toy back and forth.
4.     Taking care of them when they are sick. My fur baby had a tummy ache this week and we had to take him to the vet. When they are sick, you always worry about them throughout the day, wondering what they are doing while you are gone and if they are alright. Thank goodness, he is feeling much better though.
5.     Play time, all the time. My fur baby loves to play with all his toys. When he is not sleeping, he loves to bring toys over to his mom and have play time. He loves to run and go get his toy, run back, and jump, flying on the couch. He loves to play tug of war too.
6.     Taking them to the vet for their check-ups. When he was younger, we had to take him almost every two weekends out of each month to get him vaccinated. He does not really like the vet, but of course who does like getting shots? I know I do not and he does not either.
7.     Always posing for a selfie. He loves to take selfies and I have some crazy and funny ones of him. I love taking pictures of him as he grows up because it really shows how he is changing and you can definitely tell he has a personality from each photo.
8.     Taking them to the groomers at least once every one or two months. My little one is hypoallergenic, so he does not shed. Well, even though he does not shed, his hair grows back very, very quickly. We tend to see the groomer a lot more now because his hair grows back so quickly.
9.     Dressing them up for Halloween. Yes, I dressed my dog up for Halloween as a skunk. He did not like his costume that much but he had to deal with it.
10.  “How many times are you going to post pictures of your fur baby?” Always and forever. Having those memories with your dogs, like you do with your friends, is truly powerful. The memories will always be there with those pictures that you take and you will never forget the moments you have with your fur baby or babies because it is a special bond.
11.  When you go to class or work and your dog is giving you those puppy eyes. It is so hard to leave my little one when I have to go to school or work because he always looks sad and wants to come with me. I would carry my dog to work if I could, but he might be a handful.
12.  Not being able to enter the Lynchburg Humane Society without wanting to adopt every dog in sight. I love to visit the humane society, especially when I was freshman and still lived on campus. Now that I am off campus, I have visited the humane society once or twice to go look at the animals or to cover a story. I love being able to cover the events for the Lynchburg Humane Society and try to get students to go out to the event.