Amidst a busy schedule with Eucharist, new school, moving house and work, we also welcomed Coco to our family – a little fiery chocolate Labrador.  She’s a little devil in disguise, but you cannot but help love her.  However, recent incidents have left me no way out but to put my creative mind thinking.

It’s not easy for three kids under the age of 11 to accept that a puppy this cute cannot play with them, without biting / scratching them with her small razor-sharp teeth.  As a result, we are now stockpiling bandages to cover finger and lower leg scratches.

Please understand, we are not condoning the dog biting the kids, but in the heat of the moment the dog may mistake a finger for ball, or attempt to tackle the kids from behind by attacking their legs.  It’s in her nature to hunt 🙂

Yesterday my 5-year-old asked why the puppy is constantly attacking her, attempting to annihilate her stuffed animals and decapitate her dolls!

I was at first a little speechless.  I wasn’t ready to have this conversation.  Nevertheless, I owed an explanation to my little girl, since I was the one who brought this tiny monster into our loving home.

Probably a big parental fail, and something that I might pay for later when she attends shrink sessions to repair what I caused.  But, I decided to tell her that our cute little Labrador was in fact half a werewolf.

The horror on her faces was priceless, and as I started to elaborate about my werewolf theory, she did show early signs of fear or perhaps just utter disbelief.

I went on to explain that the scratch marks in her kennel are in fact from her transformation, and not Wolverine visiting.  Her ways of swallowing her food within seconds is a typical trademark of werewolves as they eat quickly not to get caught.

Another giveaway is the way she hunts down stuffed animals and dolls, practicing the early kill, and her tackling my daughter is to perfect her skill of bringing down running prey.

I honestly thought it was a good explanation, and went on to explain that the dog was cheaper than her siblings because she was half werewolf.

Needless to say, my daughter was terrified for a few seconds, until the little adorable chocolate Labrador laid down by her feet, looking to be scratched on her stomach.  And, I did allude to the fact that werewolves don’t harm family, and she’s family so will protect us from the evil monsters lurking in the night.

Amazingly, she did not have nightmares, but respects the puppy’s teeth a little more now.