I wonder things

When I woke up at 1 AM last night and was trying to get back to sleep, I started to think about this article that the Obamas have decided that they are getting a Labradoodle or a Portuguese Water Dog when they get to the White House. The article goes on to say that now the hunt begins in the animal shelters of the D.C. area. Well I can save them some time and tell them that according to petfinder.com, there are no Portuguese Water Dogs closer than Georgia. I could not find a Labradoodle in the search on Petfinder so maybe there is one that is closer than the Water Dog, I do not know. I can't help, but think that it is going to be damn near impossible to find these types of dogs in a shelter or they have already found these animals that is why they are being so specific. If they truly are still looking, maybe they should try the rescue groups for these animals as neither of these types of dogs are ordinary enough that you will just find one at a shelter. Then I started to wonder how the search for a dog at a shelter would go for the Obamas. Is it just Michelle and the girls or does the whole family go out to a shelter and look at a dog? What are the security concerns with the Obamas showing up at a shelter even if they have scheduled an appointment with the shelter? Most of the shelters I have been in like the potential owners to fill out some paperwork essentially saying they are fit animal adopters and like the potential owners to spend some time with the animal to make sure it works out well for the animal and for the humans, is this bent for the president of the US? Will the shelter bring the animal to the White House instead of the Obamas having to go to the shelter? Does one of the staff members for the White House or the Obamas have to spend time calling the shelters of the area to find a suitable dog? And finally who cleans up after the dog, especially if they have an accident inside? I would assume there is a gardener and other landscaping staff who may have to clean-up the dog excrement outside, but inside does the maid have to clean it up? Would the Obamas be willing to clean it up themselves or is that too dirty a job for them?

This led me to thinking about other things as related to children in the White House. The Obamas have said that they want their children to have as normal a life as they can and I seem to remember the Clintons saying the same thing for Chelsea, but really how normal can the children's lives be? Malia is 10 and Sasha is 7 which means they are old enough to want to have friends and to be able to socialize with their friends. Those are still the ages where there are birthday parties to be attended or hosted, can the girls have a birthday party with their friends or more importantly can they attend the birthday party of a friend? I remember an article a while back that discussed, I believe, both Malia and Sasha were involved in a children's theater group here in Chicago. Can they get involved in extracurricular activities? I would like to say they should be able to have a relatively normal childhood to an extent, but do the security concerns outweigh the children's social lives? And if Barak Obama is able to stay in the White House of 8 years, that means they will be 18 and 15. This is when kids really want to be able to express some independence and friends become as important or more important than parents. They may want to date or hang out with friends, can they do this? Is it a bummer to be on a date with one of the girls and have a Secret Service agent right there as an additional chaperon? Then I started to wonder about the Secret Service agents, what are there jobs as related to the children? I know they are there as security and to keep them safe, but there seemed to have been a famous incident where at least Jenna Bush and maybe her sister were caught drinking underage in college. Were the Secret Service there? Do they not have to act as law enforcement officials and stop the underage drinking? And even if their job is not to actually arrest the children or even to interfere in their lives, if the job of the Secret Service is to keep the children safe, is underage drinking safe? Shouldn't the Secret Service step in at some point, maybe before the local police show up to say hey, stop drinking. I am not condemning underage drinking, hell I did it myself and it seems at this point it is a part of the college experience right or wrong, but how does the presence of the Secret Service affect this?

At this point I fell asleep, but this is what my mind wanders to when I am trying to fall asleep.