The Dog Days of Summer
Sometimes I do dumb things that I absolutely do not regret.
When you’re home alone buzzed on a Friday night in your twenties, you text your exes. When you’re home alone buzzed on a Friday night in your fifties, you email dog breeders.
And that’s how I found myself boarding a plane to New Hampshire on Easter weekend to pick up a nine week old beagle puppy. Mind you, I already have a dog - a sweet, obedient, practically perfect 14 month old Mini Goldendoodle named Cozmo. But Cozmo goes back and forth with my daughter between my ex-husband’s house and mine, and when they leave at the end of a fun, busy week, it can feel a little too quiet sometimes.
I also found myself feeling badly for Cozmo when I left him home alone. In the parlance of attachment styles, Cozmo is anxiously attached. If you leave for fifteen minutes to get the dry cleaning, he’ll greet you upon your return as if you’ve been gone for a year fighting in Afghanistan. Much as I love these Cozmo love bombs when I walk through the door, it made me start wondering if his life would be better with a buddy. So those were my flimsy excuses for getting a new puppy - for me and for Cozmo.
He’s a very pretty little guy named Bear (as an aside, season 3 drops next week!). Bear and Cozmo could not be more different. If Cozmo is anxiously attached, Bear is 100% avoidant. Cozmo is Ken. Bear is a fuckboy. But those two dogs are best pals.
My house is now filled with a happy kind of chaos. Bear and Cozmo go tearing around the house chasing each other, roughhousing, playing keep away, and having the fun they can only have with other dogs. It’s been a ton of work - new puppies always are. (And I didn’t even mention yet that Cozmo went in for his Big Snip the week Bear arrived, necessitating a whole nother level of supervision to keep the crazy puppy away from the recuperating big brother.)
I feel like we’re starting to enter a new, slightly easier phase. Those diabolical little baby teeth that hurt so much are starting to drop out. Bear will sit quietly near me while I write - until he won’t. The accidents in the house are few and far between. We’re slowly getting there. But the next time I start making French 75s at home alone, I’m powering down my computer.
The other stuff
I enjoyed this interview with ultra endurance athlete and podcaster Rich Roll. I’ve been practicing transcendental meditation for a little over a year. It’s been life changing, but when I try to explain why to people it just comes out “I feel so great! It’s hard to explain!” This piece does some of that explaining I can’t seem to do for myself yet.
It feels like everything that can be said about the bad orange man has already been said - but this piece by Rebecca Solnit is masterful and unique and worth your time.
I’m taking my kid to London and Paris later this week. Follow along on my Instagram for food pics, some touristy stuff, and the Eras Tour at Wembley Stadium!
“I knew the kind of woman I wanted to be. I wanted to be in charge. I wanted to be free. I wanted to have a man’s life in a woman’s body. And I did.”
Diane von Furstenberg
Cute puppies!