This is Billy. His hobbies include waking Daddy up 15 minutes before his alarm, annoying his two older brothers, and destroying all his toys.
He’s destroyed more of Margaret’s shoes than I can count and has had “accidents” on every piece of furniture we own. Billy is a handful, to say the least, but he’s our boy and we love him.
Every expectation I had about raising a puppy has come true from waking up several times in the night to take him outside to cleaning up the aftermath of several stuffed toys he managed to murder.
But one thing I didn’t expect, is that Billy has helped me to grow in humility. There are many times when I have to remind myself that it’s not about me and if I want to love Billy the best that I can and teach him how to be a good boy, I must dig deep and get up off the couch to take him outside even when I don’t want to. I have to dig deep and clean his crate when he fails to hold his pee in until we get home from work. I have to dig deep and bathe his giant body when he wets himself or gets dirty from playing with his Uncle Axel (my mom’s Rottweiler puppy).
I thought I was patient before, but Billy has proved that I have a lot more work to do.
People always tell us, “The good thing about raising Billy is that you’ll be prepared to raise kids!” I can’t say for sure if this is true, but I’m not counting on it.
I hope I continue to be humbled by the unexpected because it shows that life isn’t about me anymore. Because of my wife and our three fur babies, I’m learning how to continually sacrifice for the good of my family.
Billy has been a good reminder that I’m not perfect, and that’s okay because life wouldn’t be as fun if we had it all figured out.