If you’ve ever read my blog, you may know that, along with three children, I have four dogs. We didn’t plan on having four. It sort of happened by accident. They are all dogs that someone else had mistreated or didn’t want, collected over the past decade from three different states and at separate times. They are all different sizes, different breeds, different ages, and different temperaments. Rosie, our oldest, was easy to train. Lola was difficult, but once she got it, she has been very obedient. Chloe is 70 pounds of big goofball, and Sydney, the youngest and the smallest, is stubborn as nails. She reminds me a lot of Tim. She likes affection, but only on her terms, when she is ready for it. If you discipline her in a manner she feels is unfair, even if it’s not, she gets sneaky and destructive. She can spend days wanting to be near you, then just as many treating you as if you don’t exist. Strange people and places give her amazing levels of anxiety. But above all of this, she is the cutest little bundle of hair you’ve ever seen, and, what’s worse, she knows it.

Read the rest at Support for Special Needs.