Puppy Love

“Mrs. Jersey, would you like a puppy?” asked the little boy holding a box full of little, squirming fuzzy black puppies. “No, thank you,” I said in my firm school teacher voice. Then, I softened. It would nice to have a companion at home. We had no children at the time. No, it was out of the question – I knew nothing about dogs.

The little boy lingered. He was a second grader, with big, brown puppy eyes himself, yet wise beyond his years. He said, “I’ll tell you what. Take the puppy home for the weekend, and if you don’t like him, you can bring him back.” How about that, a money back guarantee from a seven year old. How could I refuse?

I barricaded an area in my kitchen for the puppy to occupy during the night. I called my college roommate, a true pet lover who was astonished to hear I had succumbed to a second grader’s sales pitch. “But, what do I do with it now that I’ve got it?” I asked her. She gave me all the proper instructions and I felt confident I could make it through the weekend.

My husband was quite late getting home from work that night. I had already gone to bed. I awoke when I heard him shout. He had flipped on the kitchen light and had seen a blur of black fur speed across the room. He thought it was a rat, or something. I told him the deal was we were only keeping the puppy for the weekend. He was relieved “it” was a puppy. Okay, but it goes back Monday, right?

Of course we course not take her back on Monday morning. It’s amazing how quickly you become attached. We named her Duchess. I don’t remember how we came up with that name, but I know we discussed it for hours before finally coming up with a mutually acceptable name.

We’d only been married for a few years and we had recently moved into our first house. We also had begun purchasing real furniture. We were particularly proud of a massive dark pine dining room furniture set. Our pleasure was somewhat short lived. Duchess gnawed off the corner of the hutch one day while I was at work. We molded a huge wad of wood putty to repair it, but that was the beginning of the end for Duchess. Her further misadventures were numerous.

My husband has many, many allergies and the puppy hair really aggravated his nose. His office partner had two small children, and they wanted a dog very much, so they agreed to adopt her. I heard she ate the lining out of a sports jacket of her new owner. They kept her anyway and she lived happily ever after.