Day 51

The dog days are upon us, apparently.

The habitat-mate and I went for a walk this evening (for the sake of adventure, we turned left, to walk our loop clockwise instead of counter-clockwise), and as we left the habitat, she informed me that everyone she knows is getting a dog.

Literally the first human beings we encountered were a girl and her father having the talk. “Will you feed it every day? Will you do it without being asked? Will you pick up the poop from the backyard?”

(Non-parent side note: I don’t understand this conversation. Is there really an expectation that a person who eats nothing but chicken nuggets is ready to be entrusted with another being’s nutritional needs? Feeding a dog is adulty behavior. The adults are going to do it. Insisting otherwise seems like it’s just harshing everyone’s puppy buzz.)

I asked the HM if she thought it a springtime thing, or something unique to the current situation. She said it was definitely a new phenomenon, and an all-the-sudden one. It makes sense. We’re seven weeks in, and parents are worn down to the nub. Anything the children ask for, so long as it can be done in the house or yard, is an automatic yes.

Some of the usual objections are gone, too. Are we really going to stay home for three months and train a puppy?

Seemingly.

Not “we” in the specific sense, understand. The habitat-mate and I haven’t demonstrated the responsibility required to care for a dog. But if we show we can scrape our plates each night after dinner, and if we mow the lawn without being asked (by the neighbor), and if we take really good care of the plants in the window, it’s a conversation we can have again next month.