They say that the calendar doesn’t lie, but in this case it must be! I find it utterly incomprehensible that it has been only four months since Kathy and I drove to a farm just outside of Sparta, WI to bring Mabel home.  In many ways,  it feels like she has been with us forever and it’s almost impossible to remember our lives without her.  Maybe I’m surprised at how slowly time is passing right now because of the old adage Time Flies When You’re Having Fun.   If that’s true,  then our days with Mabel – which have been incredibly fun –  should be flying by in a blur.   But for every pint of fun there’s a gallon of hard work,  and maybe that’s why time sometimes feels like it’s almost at a standstill.   And I’m not exactly complaining;  when one reaches the age of 58,  anything that slows the flow of the sands through the hourglass is most welcome!   So thank you, Mabel,  for somehow slowing down our lives even while making our lives wilder and more exhausting than they have been in a long, long time!

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that there are some things about Mabel and having her in our lives that drive me a bit crazy.  One of the biggest is that having a puppy seems to be completely incompatible with writing my blog or composing music.  I have been suffering a ferocious case of writer’s block ever since Mabel’s arrival and it only releases its grip in the briefest of spurts.  I’m not exactly sure why it should be like this- but it may very well be that Mabel is managing to absorb pretty much every drop of my spare emotional energy, to say nothing of my physical and mental energy.  Case in point: when I first began writing this particular blog entry, it was titled “3 months with Mabel” – but after writing about six lines, it slid to the back burner – and by the time I took it up again, it was closer to 4 months that we have had Mabel.  One thing is for sure-  I am incredibly impressed by anybody who manages to write a compelling real time account of raising a baby or raising a puppy.  How anyone can do such thing is baffling to me.

I am also not fond (and neither is Kathy) of the health worries (and nasty vet bills) that have been part of the story of raising Mabel.  We have had to deal with two pretty serious bouts of the Big D (and I don’t mean Diphtheria) that was finally diagnosed as being caused by two parasites: one was giardia, which is commonplace in puppies-  but the other is cryptosporidium, which is not.  (Leave it to our little Mabel to contract something rare and difficult to treat.)

So we have been administering pills, squirting paste in her mouth, and sprinkling two different kinds of powder on her food.  Thankfully,  the Big D has pretty much cleared up – much to our relief – and we are hoping that within the next few days Mabel will get the big All Clear from the vet, which in turn will allow us to bring her back to daycare- meaning that there will be a couple of days a week when our little fireball of energy will be completely wiped out from a full day of spirited play. Those days are the best days – and we miss them terribly!

Then there’s the matter of Mabel’s insatiable desire to steal and chew – and it’s getting to the point where anything not under lock and key is vulnerable to theft and ultimate destruction.   She seems especially fond of paper,  and it doesn’t seem to matter much to her whether it’s toilet paper, paper towels, newspaper,  paperwork, or even paper money.  All have found their way into Mabel’s strong jaws.  But it doesn’t stop there.   She has managed to make off with piddle pads, slippers, pill bottles, car keys, blankets, towels, her own leash, and even her own ceramic dog dish in her jaws.  It’s a bit maddening,  and yet there is something irresistibly adorable about the way she proudly prances through the family room with her latest ‘catch,’ as if to say “Look at what I’ve got!”

One nice thing about puppies is that they eventually grow out of puppyhood and become mature dogs.   We already see that with Mabel – a settling down that is most welcome especially when it comes to her dealings with Ellie, our fragile 15-year-old.  In the first few weeks that Mabel was with us,  we kept Mabel and Ellie apart most of the time … not because they would fight but rather for fear that Mabel’s spirited attempts to play might result in Ellie getting hurt.  But after watching Mabel play with her brother Houston- which is non-stop, endless mayhem-  we now realize that Mabel has actually been remarkably restrained and careful with Ellie almost from the start …. not perfectly so, of course- but she has never tried to play with Ellie the play she has played with Houston or with Emma, who belongs to our friends the Gordons.  With Ellie, Mabel seems to know that she needs to be a little bit careful- and as she grows up,  she is becoming still gentler.  In fact, we now leave them together in the same room most of the time without the slightest hesitancy.  And that’s a great relief because we’re pretty sure that when we would sequester Ellie in the foyer, she probably felt like we were punishing her.  (That’s another hard part about owning dogs; you can’t explain to them why you’re doing something for their own good.)  So it’s a great joy that we can have our dogs together without any hesitancy whatsoever- and the most important thing about that Ellie is happier … and we want whatever time we have with Ellie to be as happy for her as possible.

Of course,  Mabel is still plenty of ‘puppy’ – and we wouldn’t have it any other way –  but I must admit to feeling a certain gratitude and relief that Mabel is growing up, slowly but surely.   One of the moments in which that is most forcefully driven home to me is when I am walking Mabel and at some point, she will just plant herself on the grass to take a few moments to just quietly look around.  Gone is the energetic and even frantic spirit of exploration that all puppies share-  replaced by a calmer, more tranquil curiosity about the world around her.  And whenever she sits there and peacefully gazes at whatever catches her eye,  it’s a chance to fall in love with her all over again- and to be reminded why it is that we allow these four-legged creatures into our lives and into our hearts.