Three Pack

Hello! Molly here. I haven’t posted since May - right after Memorial Day. I promised a follow-up post to comment on our Memorial Day celebrations but never got around to it. Honestly, I didn’t feel like anybody (except my husband who asked me when he could read the follow-up post) actually wanted to read the second part. And truth be told, nobody else inquired about it so it remains an untold story. Anyhow, the aforementioned (feeling like nobody reads my posts) coupled with the fact that we Dissident Daughters agreed to ensure we post regularly even if one has not much time nor energy, has inspired a rather short, simple post from yours truly. I don’t feel like philosophizing about one of the many issues for which I have passion and I don’t feel like discussing a hot topic in the news. So here goes…

The big, entertaining news in the middle child’s life is that our family grew from a two pack to a three pack this week! Larry and I adopted a 6 month old puppy from a place in Dedham, MA called Shultz’s Guest House. If you live in MA and are looking to adopt, definitely check out their website (www.sghrescue.org). Such an amazing organization! We adopted Daphne, who is supposedly a lab/beagle mix (thought I think she has some greyhound in her because fortunately for me, she loves to run!), last Tuesday and already I have learned and realized so much from my new experience in being a dog owner. Here are the top 3:

1.       Although I am not yet a parent (and by no means do I want to minimize/trivialize the parenting experience), being a puppy mama has some similarities to being a baby mama. The biggest one that comes to mind for me is that you can’t “hurry up” a puppy just like you can’t “hurry up” a child. Children and puppies simply want to enjoy life and have not lost the ability to stay in the moment. They aren’t rushing from activity to activity or place to place. They aren’t so distracted by modern technology and social media to literally stop and smell the roses. For further reading you should definitely check out this amazing blog post on “hurrying up” http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rachel-macy-stafford/the-day-i-stopped-saying-hurry-up_b_3624798.html.  Before being a puppy mama, I would go on walks with a mission. I’d want to get in a certain mileage or complete the walk within a certain time so that I could quickly move onto my next activity or obligation. Walking with Daphne has slowed me down immensely. She wants to stop and smell EVERYTHING and it’s been good for me. When she stops to smell the flowers, I actually notice what kind are in the neighborhood now (we have tons of beautiful hydrangeas right now!). When she stops still to try and listen to chase a bird or a bunny, I actually notice the sounds around me. I’m in the moment more and it’s nice.

 

2.       Being a dog owner automatically forces you to become more social. Before Daphne, Larry and I knew probably 3 families in our neighborhood. In only 6 days, we have met at least 8 additional families AND their dogs. On Friday night, many people in the neighborhood were walking their dogs. At one point, we had all stopped to talk and let the dogs play and there were 6 dogs and 9 humans standing in the middle of the street. I have never felt so “neighborhoody” since moving into the house in January 2014. Here it was, 7pm on a Friday night and we were all gabbing in the middle of the street. On one of the other days while walking Daphne, one of our neighbors asked if they were going to see us more now that we had Daphne because “no offense, but you guys were kind of hermits.” Haha!! I will admit that Larry and I are both kind of introverted people, but I wouldn’t have thought people would say we were hermits! Yay for Daphne bringing us out of our shells!

 

3.       People really can and do love dogs…sometimes more than they love humans. It was the cutest thing on Friday night because one of the humans standing in the middle of the street was an adorable 6 year old girl, Ava, who wouldn’t leave Daphne alone. She kept kissing her, hugging her, and playing with her ears. I never had the experience of really loving an animal while I was growing up so to witness Ava loving on Daphne was quite moving. My best friend Naomi and I joke that when fellow dog owners and their dogs meet, the owners are more likely to remember the newly met dog’s name than the newly met owner’s. Personally, I can list off all the dogs’ names that we met Friday night (Max, Riley, Chunk, Stan, Milo, Daphne) and only about half of the owners…case in point. Tonight while walking Daphne, a man intentionally stopped mowing his lawn so that he could say hello, not to me but to Daphne. Even more interesting, he doesn’t even live in the neighborhood – he was just taking care of one of the lawns. Furthermore, he asked what Daphne’s name was but had no interest in saying hello to me or asking my name. By no means was I offended as I’m not one for small talk anyway, but I did find it intriguing. Most likely he loves dogs more than humans. J