All it Took was a Biscuit to Make my Baby’s Dream Come True
By Michael O’Rourke, San Antonio Express-News
I thought my days of getting up in the middle of the night to soothe a crying baby were over. The chapter of my life where I warmed milk, mashed food and cleaned up “accidents” was written. I hadn’t planned on being spit up on again until my pregnant sister gives birth later this year and my soon-to-be-born niece baptizes my shoulder. Yet, for three days in a row, I have staggered out of bed in the middle of the night to tend to a newborn bladder. I lovingly scoop the baby up in my arms, go out into the front yard and plop the baby down. “Go potty, Biscuit.”That’s right. We have a new puppy. Birth order often determines pet ownership. Oldest children get the first pet. Oldest children get to pick the dog or cat and the other siblings enter a family that already has an animal. My middle daughter, Sarah, was no exception. Her older sister had won the pet lottery by being born first. Sarah has always wanted her own dog. For years I told her that, someday, it would happen.
It started when she was in kindergarten. At the book fair Sarah picked up “Hello, Biscuit.” Biscuit was a golden retriever puppy.