I’d eventually find my way to this handsome creature, my best buddy Thurber the Yellow Lab!
The covid blues were getting to me.
It was late December, 2020. I was climbing the walls, ready to jump out of a window.
As a writer and communications consultant, I’ve long worked from an office in my home. I had been used to the isolation, but, like millions of other work-from-home people, covid isolation was pushing me beyond my limits.
Family issues were also weighing me down. My father, then 87, was facing a series of health challenges. It was painful for my family and I to witness the once powerful man become a shell of himself.
I was on guard daily waiting for a phone call to help get him off the floor, as his legs were no longer able to hold him. I had to be especially cautious so I did not get Covid myself for fear I’d pass it on to my mother and father as I was assisting him.
Waiting for the other shoe to drop — waiting for a middle-of-the night call to help pick him up from a fall — became the norm.
Isolation and stress — and constant worry — began weighing me down.
Best Decision I Ever Made
My oldest sister, Kathy, offered what she thought was the perfect solution to my self-centered woes:
“You need to get a dog,” she said matter of fact one day.
I’ve always loved dogs and routinely stop to pet any pup who crosses my path.
I still miss my childhood puppy, Jingles, a collie-mutt mix who had the sweetest disposition and who barked like a coyote (much more on Jingles later!).
But I’d never considered bringing a canine companion into my home permanently.
I’m away from the house too often, I told myself. I don’t want to leave a dog isolated in a crate.
I travel for work too often, and I don’t want to burden my family with my pup’s care while I am away, I convinced myself.
But the truth is that I didn’t want the responsibility. I wanted to come and go and do as I pleased without answering to anyone.
The need for a new, positive direction finally became clear.
“I’m getting a dog,” I said to myself, as I made the best decision I’d ever made in my life.
I made a cup of coffee, sat before my computer and I began pouring every ounce of energy I had into the process of finding a canine companion to bring into my home.