{"id":2275,"date":"2020-04-19T01:51:26","date_gmt":"2020-04-19T01:51:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/?p=2275"},"modified":"2020-04-19T12:33:59","modified_gmt":"2020-04-19T12:33:59","slug":"the-new-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/the-new-guy\/","title":{"rendered":"The New Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time is a blur these days, but it still seems that our relationship was in its tender, early stages when suddenly, with the onset of a national emergency, we became captives together.<\/p>\n

Maybe not captives exactly, but we are tethered here by a togetherness that is unrelenting, with no end in sight.\u00a0 In this unprecedented time, \u201csheltering in place\u201d as ordered, we are compliant and thus far safe, we fervently hope, at home.\u00a0 Day after day, with every strange flip of the calendar, I am here, he is here, sometimes not even six feet away.\u00a0 No matter where I go in the house, here we still are.<\/p>\n

And he worries.\u00a0 He can\u2019t help himself.\u00a0 A tad anxious by nature, he is even more antsy in these unfamiliar days that struggle to find a rhythm he can recognize.\u00a0 If I get up from the work table for coffee, he watches carefully, his furrowed brow telegraphing a preference that I would stay still, where I can be regularly monitored.\u00a0 Sometimes he follows, wondering if he might be needed, just making sure that, with hot coffee in hand, I will return as promised.\u00a0 At first, I tried reassurance:\u00a0 Don\u2019t get up, I\u2019d say patiently, I\u2019ll get it, there\u2019s nothing for you to do, relax.\u00a0 Then I gave up, realizing that like many stubborn males with protective instincts who I have been fortunate to adore, he wouldn\u2019t listen.\u00a0 After the first couple of weeks, occasionally he would stay put, thinking perhaps he could trust me to come back, weary of the burden of fretting every second, turning his attention to matters of his own concern.<\/p>\n

The odd dynamic of shared confinement is not just emotional.\u00a0 I am embarrassed about my hair; I need my roots done and can\u2019t remember when I last showered.\u00a0 He needs a bath and most certainly a haircut.<\/p>\n

If he wasn\u2019t such a thoroughly charming little dog, he\u2019d be driving me nuts.<\/p>\n

Gus came to join my little household early last fall,<\/a> very soon after my beloved hound dog died of cancer after 13 hilarious years.\u00a0 It was too soon, really, to get another dog, thinking back on it now, if such decisions of the heart were measured strictly by traditional guidelines for grief recovery.\u00a0Too soon for me to accept him for who he is, such a different little brain and spirit than she was; too soon to accept the love he offered so readily, after being abandoned following the death of his previous owner.\u00a0 Too soon to care much that he had different taste in treats, a different pace on a walk, and a solid instinctive obligation to stand guard and warn me against the hazards of all unknown comers.\u00a0 My deep grief over her passing and the suffering she endured at the very end did not dissipate, and while I was glad to keep Gus safe and well-fed, on some days I looked at him from a distance, almost as though he was someone else\u2019s dog.<\/p>\n

This is probably why there are so many divorces among people who remarry too quickly, I thought idly, then immediately feared I had a different problem, thinking that way about a dog.\u00a0A few months trundled past and slowly, I began to adjust.\u00a0 He is the first of so many things, I reminded myself, trying to achieve the grace of patience\u2014my first boy dog in 25 years, my first with a long coat and its riotous tufts spiking every which-a-way, my first Dachshund, with their renowned sensitivity and (only occasionally amusing) stubbornness.\u00a0 I had no idea what hygiene might be required around what the vet called \u201chis little PoPo,\u201d no idea why saying No about 46 times didn\u2019t appear to make a dent.\u00a0 Do long-backed dogs automatically have the cleanest colons of the canine kingdom?\u00a0 I can\u2019t fathom why this dog poops at least three times a day, sometimes four.<\/p>\n

When the pandemic slammed the nation shut in early spring, Gus had been here almost seven months.\u00a0 Weeks now into our shared isolation, he\u2019s getting pretty smelly and stoutly declines to wrestle with the restless cat upon demand. Yet with time to observe him more fully, I am amazed to watch how he does his nervous, short-legged best to adapt.\u00a0 This week, I noticed I could go to the bathroom alone.\u00a0 He waited quietly, without protest, for his morning potty relief when I overslept one day this week.\u00a0 I denied a request to go out late one afternoon, citing an important conference call about to launch, and watched him return patiently to his bed in my home office, though not without giving me the eye.\"\"<\/p>\n

\"\"The other day I dropped onto the couch in a low moment, staring out the window in despair.\u00a0 I miss my daughter, my grandchildren, all my family, my friends, my co-workers, like we all do, of course.\u00a0 And I realized how fully my heart had finally relented toward this funny little dog when he jumped up next to me, and I encircled him in a crushing hug.\u00a0 I\u2019m SO glad you are here, I told him.\u00a0 I don\u2019t know what I would do, if you weren\u2019t. I\u2019m glad you let people hug you.\u00a0 Your predecessor, rest in peace, would never have tolerated such.<\/p>\n

He turned when I released the hug and looked me straight in the eye, bestowing a gentle, tiny, tentative kiss on the side of my cheek.<\/p>\n

And then he burped.<\/p>\n

I guess little boys will be little boys, in the face of whatever the universe brings.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time is a blur these days, but it still seems that our relationship was in its tender, early stages when suddenly, with the onset of a national emergency, we became captives together. Maybe not captives exactly, but we are tethered here by a togetherness that is unrelenting, with no end in sight.\u00a0 In this unprecedented […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":2276,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,12],"tags":[152,147,153,151,150,154],"class_list":["post-2275","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-humor","category-mid-life-adventures","tag-dachshund","tag-pandemic","tag-rescue-dog","tag-self-isolation","tag-sheltering-in-place","tag-working-at-home"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2275"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2275\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2276"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2275"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2275"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gmachronicles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2275"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}