Let’s Get a Dog

I had grieved Stubby for months.  My heartache, initially worn as constant tears, had faded to a sorrow I was unsure would ever leave me.  I was incomplete.  I was a dog person without a dog.

Carol got to the heart of the matter, “Would you break up with him if he said you could never have a dog?”  

“Huh,” I mused with my old college friend, “Well, I just don’t know how much longer I can go without one.”  

I broached the subject with David gingerly at first.   His noncommittal answers every time I talked about dogs only served to increase my desperation to find my next friend.

“Oh, look at that Golden. How cute.”

“Did you see Smokey in the lake? I didn’t know Huskies swam.”

“Well, if you don’t want a dog, maybe we should have a baby instead,” I bluffed.

“Okay,” he said.

“Huh?”

“Okay, let’s get a puppy.”  

“I was just kidding about the baby.  Are you kidding about the puppy back at me?”  

He shrugged in a resigned, the girlfriend won this round sort of way, “It’s easier to get a dog than it is to listen to you talk about not having one everyday…. all day.”  I didn’t dare gloat, too afraid he would change his mind.  The best course of action was to get the puppy ASAP.  We debated breeds like our lives depended on it, but eventually the breeds narrowed to two – Labradors and Shelties.  David had a Sheltie growing up.  I was partial to the Labs.  It was mid-May when I announced, “I found him.  We have to go see him Friday. It’s a little far, Brattleboro.  I can drive and you can study on the way.  It is the last Lab puppy available in Vermont this spring.  We have to get him.” 

“But there must be other puppies closer.   You’re talking the other end of the state.  And it is a really long state.”  He had his need to talk her off the ledge tone in his voice, instantly making me resentful of anything he would say next.

“No,” I ramped up.  “I want this puppy.”  I couldn’t believe he didn’t understand how important this was.

That night he came home and said, “Didn’t you want a girl?”

“Yes, but she only has a boy left.”  

“Well, I read a Lab Puppies for Sale Sign on the bulletin board today.  They have seven puppies for sale and there are two girls.  Why don’t we go look?  They’re five minutes away.”

“But I want the boy puppy that’s left in Brattleboro.  They must be great dogs if they’re all spoken for.”

“It won’t hurt to go look at these puppies.  What have we got to lose?”

“Okay, but I won’t cancel Friday’s appointment.” Standing my ground, not giving in, seemed so important.  He retreated to his office and I retreated to mine.

The sunlight sparkled into the window, illuminating the whelping box, as I stepped in to see Teton and her brood of seven.  She was a tank of a mother.  Her shiny black coat connected a wagging tail to dark eyes checking out strangers near her pups.  Her wag took on a genuine tempo to greet us after she recognized we wouldn’t harm her pups.  Their eyes were closed and they lay like black-coated amebas in a big pile.

Andrea, Teton’s owner said,“You can pick one up.”   I didn’t move quickly enough, still transfixed by the sight of Teton’s pup pile.  David reached down for one off to the side, a little smaller than the others.  He didn’t mean to, but he let the sunlight catch the puppy in his hand as he straightened up with her in his palm.  Eyes snapped shut, only five inches end to end, sun playing on black fur, a perfect little being.  Even he was pensive and quiet as he placed the puppy in my hand.

The Brattleboro puppy was the farthest thing from my mind and yet he’s what I talked about first.  “We have an appointment to look at a puppy in Brattleboro Friday.”

“At Ella’s?” Andrea asked. 

“Yeah, do you know her?” I stared at the little being in my hand.  I could feel the tiniest of movements, a paw, a nose, a heart.

“Small world in Labs.  We got Teton from Ella two years ago.  We actually bred her back to Ella’s dog, Murphy.   He’s a breed dog, but his temperament is so stable that he’s often used for therapy dog litters.”

“So Teton and Murphy are Ella’s breeding, making these pups descendants of her lines?”

“Absolutely,” Andrea acknowledged.  “You can have first pick of the two girls if you want.”  

“For sure, yes, definitely.  Thank you, I can’t believe this little being is right here.”  David exhaled in relief and Teton’s tail thumped against the whelping box.