That Girl

I know that, around here, I'm going to be all dog all the time for a while. If you write what you're experiencing and what you're experiencing at the moment is a throwback to an old Dunkin' Donuts commercial (Time to walk the dog), then that's what you'll be writing about.

Today I texted the dog walker to let her know that I'd left the dog in his crate with two fans but no AC, would she please let me know if she thought he needed AC as the temps will continue to be high for a few days. I get texts instead of written notes with my dog walking because I can't wait until I get home to get my 2 sentence evaluation of Eddie's midday meetup. Did I mention that, while I have sprung for dog professional dog walking 5 days a week, I'm getting the cheapest/shortest walk there is. And yet I am THAT CLIENT, the high maintenance one. The one who adopts a dog while you're on your first vacation in two years and insists on getting him walked by your company.

Someone said to me this weekend, "Don't worry. Just focus on this time next month. It'll all be simpler and easier in a month." And I replied, quite honestly, "A month? Wow, I'm actually looking at this time next year. By then things will have evened out." He's a young dog, training is a slow process, why get my hopes up, you know? A month will be better but how much better? In a year we'll have a groove for sure and if we don't I'll have no one to blame but myself.

That being said he's a very good dog already. I really hope that someone isn't out there missing him and unable to find him, because I think they did put in a lot of time helping him to be a good citizen. He doesn't chew things he's not supposed to, he waits when told, he brings his leash when he wants to go for a walk, he doesn't jump up on people and, frankly, he's awfully good company.

The cats mileage may vary on that last one but even they seem to be softening toward the little ball of whine. Sure, they still hiss and swipe at him but their jabs seem perfunctory, they certainly aren't aimed to kill. I've gotten in the way of those before, they aren't pretty. His feelings aren't hurt. They can swipe and jab all they want, he'll still come back in a few minutes to see if they've changed their minds.

Waiting in line to get in to see Eddie Izzard a couple of weeks ago I had that pang you get. My brain whispered to me, "You should be ashamed of yourself leaving that poor new dog home alone. He gets lonely." I was in line to see Eddie Izzard, Eddie Motherfucking Izzard, and I still had that pang.

Which is why you'll never catch me making fun of someone who cries when they drop a kid off at school.