I am officially familied out, I think.
Fenway is a predominantly inside dog. She goes with us wherever we go, for the most part. DH's family lives 45 minutes from our house at the most. When we go out there, Josh likes to spend the night on Christmas eve because it's tradition. This is fine with me. I always say I'm going to get Fenway a spot in the kennel, and my MIL always tells me we should just bring her out there. This is only a problem because she's not allowed inside their house unless she's in her crate, which is fine, she sleeps in her crate anyway, and if we are out there during the summer, she stays out on the rope and she loves it.
Christmas day was WAY too cold for her to be out on the rope, and I couldn't put her in her crate inside the house because she'd want to be a part of what's going on and she'd bark. The ILs have a detached garage that has a heater in it, so I set her up out there in her crate so she couldn't get into anything that would hurt her, and spent my Christmas day going out there every hour to let her run and play a bit in the cold. That's my fault. I should have just boarded her.
The part that made me mad was when I brought her in and was getting her dinner ready. I put her dry dog food in the bowl, and I took some plain white roasted turkey breast that was left over, no skin, and no dark meat, mixed into her food. When I went upstairs to feed her, DH's brother's wife tells my MIL and everyone else there that I "shouldn't have given her that. It's going to make her throw up on the carpet." She just thinks that because she has two pure bred dogs that sit outside and never have any human interaction that she knows everything. I'm sorry, but owning AKC registered dogs does NOT make you an expert, especially when you feed them the generic brand of "Old Roy" dog food. Mixing a little meat into Fenway's dinner is a hell of a lot better than the crap in that stuff. Also, I have trouble keeping weight on Fenway, she is so active and has such a high metabolism. It's not like she's an obese dog.
Whew. If you made it this far, thanks. I just needed to get it out. I don't tell her how to parent her children OR animals. My response to her when she later told me that was "My dog, my choice," but there were SEVERAL other things I would have liked to say in addition.
Re: Pet Parents (Vent-LONG)
Baby #2: Surprise BFP 9.19.12, EDD 5.24.13, natural m/c 10.19.13 at 9w
How frustrating! I would have told her thanks for the advice, but I know what Im doing.
Moments like that make me realize how much worse it's going to be when we have kids.
I completely do not understand people who have outdoor dogs. What is the point? A dog should be part of a family. This would have totally pissed me off!
I am writing this while our two dogs are fast asleep on Ed on the couch...that is almost 100lbs of dog snoring on my husband. Yeah, they're a tad spoiled...and they LOVE turkey
BFP 5/2/11, missed m/c, D&C 6/13/11
BFP 12/8/11--Little Girl E Born 8/22/12
Is it OK to say I don't like your SIL?
It seems so random. WTH does she care that you fed your dog some turkey?
Just read this and it makes NO since. I guess that is what I get for NUI.