Photo by Caitlin Abrams
Puppy in a Box
Home is where the heart is—and where many of us have been 24 hours a day since March. If there’s any flaw at home, it’s now glaring. Would you have skimped on art if you knew it would be in your Zoom background forever? Would you ever have guessed how much a bad carpet can get on your nerves when the two of you are never apart? And that’s the little stuff. “The Nuclear Family Was a Mistake,” conservative columnist David Brooks has concluded in The Atlantic. Yikes. Everything OK at home, Dave? Well, of course not—who’s OK these days? Enter the puppies! Scampering and yelping and puppy-kissing as they scramble into our homes and hearts.
Did you know puppies create the same feel-good dopamine and serotonin release as babies? No wonder we call them fur babies, and no wonder the pandemic has brought about a fur-baby boom. Shelters report hundreds of applications for every pooch, rescue groups are bringing in dogs from the South and Mexico to meet demand, and purebred pup costs are soaring.
Now, as we head into the holiday season, we are reaffirmed in something we always knew, but maybe sometimes forgot the importance of: home. It isn’t just where the heart is—it’s where the rawhides and squeaky plush bananas lurk under every chair, where patience with “accidents” is at an all-time high, and where we can get through the tough times, the rough times, and now the ruff times, as long as we put enough love out to get through it together. —D.M.G.
Bark Joy (with Gifts from Santa Paws)
Photo by Caitlin Abrams
