This Side of the Pond

A couple of months ago, none of us were dreaming up ways to stay entertained while stuck indoors (except during snowstorms), but that’s our new reality. Little did I know, back when the outside was still a place we were allowed to go, that someone very small had already solved this conundrum for me.

It is hard to be bored, you see, when you are adjusting to a tiny tornado. We have unexpectedly come into possession of a puppy.

This saga actually began about six weeks ago, when Oglala Pet Project (OPP) posted a photo of their newest arrival. Spaniel-faced with soft ears, dozy eyes and scrappy fur, from the same place that gave us our beloved Midge, we fell in love and had to stake our claim.

Unfortunately, we got a message the next day that she had tested positive for parvo, which is not a fun disease for a pup. She would need treatment and quarantine, which would in turn set back the normal process of vaccinating and spaying a new arrival.

In other words, we were going to need to be patient and let the pros do their job. OPP is an organization I’ve long respected for the lengths they go to for every animal they rescue, so we knew she was in the best hands.

A few weeks passed and our potential pet was with foster parents, now answering both to the original name they’d given her and the new one we’d picked. She still wasn’t feeling well, but the updates were more positive by the day.

The time finally came for her to be spayed and prepared for her new life…and it just so happened to be the same day I retreated to our apartment for the long haul. We couldn’t go on a road trip, so how was Pickle to come home?

Last weekend, we fixed that problem. Everyone involved had been in self-isolation for long enough that we could meet in a deserted parking lot near the entrance to Spearfish Canyon to make the exchange. It was like a drug deal in a movie, except instead of contraband we got a ball of excited fluff.

There’s nothing like the exuberance of youth to keep you on the move, as it turns out. Pickle has no idea she’s in isolation, but then she wouldn’t much care if we told her – everything around her is new and exciting.

She’s met lots of other dogs, some who thought she’d make an excellent chew toy and others who looked exhausted just watching her bounce. She’s introduced herself to a cat, who couldn’t have been less impressed, and she’s barked at some turkeys from afar.

She’s explored every inch of the house at least six thousand times, which took just under five minutes because she’s a streak of lightning with a fur coating. She’s been on a similar number of walks, mostly to encourage decent potty behavior, and sniffed every piece of gravel on the drive.

The husband describes the experience of walking her as akin to flying a sentient kite. When he stops in place to let her run around, he’s fairly certain he could use her to draw the perfect circle.

She’s certainly encouraging us to see the familiar in a new light, even if that does mean perceiving every unlit corner as a potential potty spot. Poor Pickle spent a quarter of her life shut away in quarantine, which means she can’t work out how she’s meant to respond when nature calls.

She wants to be good, because she’s surprisingly well mannered for a little one, but she doesn’t know how. This means we are keeping a tally of inside versus outside poops and constantly on edge when she gets to wandering.

She’s currently at war with Midge, who apparently forgot how much she likes rawhide bones until someone else found the one she “buried” down the side of her bed about six months ago.

The ritual goes as follows: Dog A chews bone, while Dog B stares. Dog A is distracted momentarily by a random noise and Dog B quickly snatches bone and saunters off to bury it under their bed.

Dog A stares in confusion at space where bone was. Dog A figures out what has happened and becomes Dog B.

Pickle also has a touch of separation anxiety, which means she makes a right old racket if one of us leaves the room. We might be having issues getting the puppy’s bathroom habits sorted, but the two of us have never been so efficient.

We strongly suspect that her dislike of being left alone is connected to her quarantine while she was contagious. She came to learn that, when a human left the confined space she was forced to call home, it meant loneliness and boredom with a side of feeling ill.

Sometimes life throws learning opportunities you couldn’t expect, and this pandemic has definitely been one of them. What we didn’t expect was a teachable moment in the form of a fuzzy new life.

In her noisy response to isolation, I think we can all see the potential future. So as we all keep adapting to this new way of living, let’s be sure we’re making good use of phones and meeting apps, texts and emails to keep up with our friends and family. Otherwise, a month from now, I’m pretty sure we’ll all start howling every time we see a closed door.