Badgered

My last post was May 13th. I brought home a puppy on May 26th. That's all you need to know.

It's been two months on never letting a dog out of my sight. Two months of cleaning up accidents in the house. Two months of "puppy proofing" the backyard. Two months of unbelievable tension between me and my gal (she pushed, I caved). As I type this, Badger (a Rottweiler of 4.5 months) is sleeping on the front tile. Over the last week there's been an astonishing transformation from hellion to angel. Either he's finally come around to our ways of thinking and training, or he's got some intestinal disease that's eating away at his insides. I'll prefer to side with the former for the time being. Peace has returned, and lessons have been learned.

I'm done with puppies. When my parents' dog passed away in 1990 at the age of 14, I wanted to ask why they never got another one. I never did. My answer was supplied on Badger's first day. They simply didn't have the time or the energy that they did in 1976 when Cindy was brought home (that, and they didn't have any more kids in the house to nag them into such a purchase). I'm in good shape for my age, but my levels of energy and patience are nowhere near what they were when Maverick came into our lives in 2003. Badger was/is simply nothing more than a normal puppy. Jumpy, hyper, enthusiastic, whiny, not to be trusted, challenging. Puppies are babies without the tax credit. My longing to fill the hole left behind by Maverick led me to push for a puppy and my gal in no way pushed back.

You shouldn't get a dog to replace a dog. I learned after Badger came home that I didn't miss having A dog. I missed having THAT dog. Mav. That was my dog. As much as my gal tried and tried and tried, he was always mine. Through no fault of Badger, he's coming into a home where he has to succeed a dog of incredible sweetness (and medical bills) and win over an increasingly curmudgeon- like owner. Unthinkable even last week at these time, he's allowed me the time to share a few thoughts and take a few sips. Maybe we'll actually make it through this. What I've taken away most is this: knowing what you can't do can be more important than knowing what you can.