The Irony Of It All

when my son and his wife moved back home after pesach they had an iron clad rule that the dogs were off limits upstairs. i respected their wishes as this was their apartment now. but then, my son started to criticize my house keeping skills . when he would come home after work he would complain that the house smelled 'dogie". he said it was time to get rid of the dogs. this was truly an about face for anyone who knows my son. zvi has been infatuated with dogs since he could walk. we used to live across the street from the gan hayot, the local petting zoo. it began as a project for the inmates of the local mental health institute. i used to bring zvi there every day in his carriage for an outing and to have some fresh air. when he was a toddler he would play with the huge white shepherd dog named "ayellet". he would crawl all over her and pull her tail and she wouldn't even flinch. her job was to guard the zoo and keep out unwanted animals. she would also round up any goats that ran out into the street. it was a charmed childhood having the zoo as one's backyard. when he was 2 he would play with my friend's dogs on his way home from gan. by the age of 4, zvi would go across to the zoo by himself and spend the entire day there. he was a little mascot there. he practically grew up there and eventually was given chores to do . he was even given a set of keys to the zoo. when he got older he started collecting strays. every week he would find a puppy and drag it home. i would allow the puppy a night or two in the house, get it shots and then find a home for it. we had every type of dog that you can imagine. he found our first pincher shivering in the snow. that was sushi #1. about 10 years ago we had two puppies at the same time. before pesach i decided to become pet free. i had enough of trying to find pet food that was kosher for pesach for the goldfish, the turtle, the love birds, the guinea pigs and the two puppies. i managed to find homes for all of them. i had my home back in order and i was feeling good. just before my son's bar mitzvah he came home one day with another pincher. this was sushi #3. one of the workers from the petting zoo begged zvi to take her because she was going to be put down the next day. they all knew zvi's history with dogs. i absolutely refused at first. i did not want the burden of a full time dog. zvi tried as hard as he could to persuade me but i was adamit! finally, zvi promised that he would wear a hat for his bar mitzvah so i agreed to keep the dog. i took one look at the dog and told zvi that she was pregnant. we took the dog to the vet but he disagreed with my diagnosis. i ran out and bought a dogie bed for her and three weeks later on new year's eve, friday nite, shabbos kodesh, she gave birth to 4 pups. after six weeks we found home for the pups and sushi eventually moved up to the burbs with us. i think that zvi wore his hat about three times. i eventually donated it to a gamach. when zvi was 15 he found a small fluff ball that grew into "cookie" the dog. when sushi died zvi went to haifa and bought the ever tiny "paco"for me. and when paco died , zvi bought the ever hyper-active cloey. now that zvi is a married man and a new father he has banned dogs from the house. oh the irony of it all!