Banjo’s Popularity

Ivan and I don’t have any children yet. When we got married 9 years ago (holy crap!), we didn’t actually want children. So we did our own thing, traveling around a bit, working and enjoying ourselves.Then, when Ivan decided to go back to school to pursue his M.D. degree, we knew we weren’t having kids for at least another 4 years.

For all of those years, though, we’ve had dogs and we’ve always wanted our dogs to be thoroughly socialized with children. Even though we don’t have any kids, both of Ivan’s sisters and my brother have kids. The last thing we ever wanted was to have our dogs unprepared for meeting children and react negatively. (After working for years with animals, I’ve heard horror stories of what can happen with unsocialized dogs and children.)

I’m happy to say that every dog we’ve had has been wonderful with even the craziest children.

Our most recent pup, Banjo, is no exception. At first we weren’t sure how to socialize her with kids since we live so far away from our families. Fortunately, our downstairs neighbors have 4 kids that LOVE dogs.

Banjo gets to visit with them for a playdate a couple times a week. And she certainly adores the children. But she is truly smitten with their dad, Kevin. When we have the neighbors over for drinks and games, Banjo can’t leave Kevin alone. When we take her outside for potty, if she hears Kevin’s voice in their apartment, she stops at their door, begging for a visit.

I wonder what poor Banjo will do when we leave the city in a few months?