The puppy was my idea. Well, it was the whole family's idea, but I was the one who led the charge to adopt one. We had just finished our big adventure in Paris, and my son reminded me that I had mentioned ... merely mentioned ... that we might get a pet after we came back from our spring break trip. I scoured the internet, applied for rescue dogs and dragged the kids along to every animal shelter and SPCA within a ten mile radius.
On Mother's Day, we went to La Boulange in Hayes Valley, then to the San Francisco SPCA and the San Francisco Animal Control facility. We managed to leave without adopting any of the adorable animals we met, and it seemed as though we would make it to the movie theater, as planned, to see Babies. But we didn't. Instead, we took a tiny detour to Oakland Animal Services, where we had almost adopted a puppy a week before, and I was certain there were no puppies available for adoption (according to the internet listings). The internet lied. When we got to the shelter, there he was -- looking all cute and puppyish. He had me, and he seemed not to care. He was happy to be had by anybody and everybody. I filled out the forms, and we carried him out to the car. We had a puppy.
My son summed it up when he said, "Mom! You're a mom again!" The big difference, of course, is that human babies don't have super sharp teeth -- thank goodness, since I breast fed both of my human babies -- and, another is that human babies are expected to wear diapers. Puppies could wear diapers, but this is considered inappropriate in the dog-person world. Lots of things are considered inappropriate in the dog-person world, many of which I did with regularity with the dogs I grew up with as a child. Like table food. Table food is a no-no. Why? Because, then the dog will always want table food. (Well, of course -- but what's wrong with that?) Instead, we have to find the right formulation of dog food, and stick with it until the dog will no longer eat it, and then slowly wean the dog off of the current food by blending it with a new food, and then we must stick with that one until the dog will no longer eat it, and the cycle begins, again. I have failed on the table food prohibition. I actually cooked some rice specifically for the puppy and made little bite size rice balls for him. I blew on them, to cool them off, too. And he loved them! It was organic brown rice, so I told myself it was okay, even though I am confessing it now as if it could land me in jail. (Okay, I have also given him the crust of some sunflower seed-rye bread, which he also loved. Other than that, I have been pretty good. Really.)
I was pretty proud of myself for having some self-restraint in the table food department. Then we went to puppy training class, and the teacher says to us, "Don't use regular dog treats to train your puppy -- you need something much better, much more enticing, like hot dogs or cold cuts." What?!!! All this time I had been restraining myself on the table food, and the teacher is telling me that I should have been giving him table food. My people-food-deprived pup quickly learned that, yes, the teacher's treats were much better than mine. He could not keep his eyes off the teacher's assistant, following her longingly with his gaze while I tried to get his attention with my plain old organic dog treats from Whole Foods. I've been spending a small fortune on organic dog treats, when I could have just been buying Oscar Meyer.
Woof.
