Covid Puppies - Part I: Decision Made

I do not like the term, Covid dog, as it implies, we purchased a dog that has contracted Covid.

We did not get a Covid dog because we wanted even more danger in our lives. We did things the right way and got our dog for Christmas.

We can be smug about it because we got a rescue, which makes us better than everyone else in the entire world who paid $10,000 for a labradoodle.

And while we said we got it for Christmas, we did it at that time because the kids had a fluke, un-American two and a half weeks off school. Dates fell weirdly in 2020 or maybe the teachers were bored of staying at home in their pyjamas while Edpuzzle and Khan Academy educated our children last year and needed more time off for morning drinking.

As I am sure many of us who did bite the bullet and get a dog during the pandemic can attest, whether you went to a breeder or a rescue, it was not easy to find puppies. Breeders wait lists were sometimes one to two years in the pipeline and rescue pups were flying out the doors as quickly as they came in. We decided we were going to get a puppy, as this was our very first dog, so we wanted to be able to shape and mould the little bugger, then adapt to an older dog with an unknown history.

Our discussion around owning a dog is a Forsyte Saga in itself. I have wanted a dog since I was 8 years old. I am 46 now, so nobody can accuse me of not having thought it through. But work, life and travel got in the way of that. Our mistake however was promising our children, who had also been begging for a dog since the ages of 5 and 3, that if we ever moved back to the UK or to the US, where we would have far more space than in Singapore, we would get a dog.

Of course, like all good parents we reneged on that deal when we moved to the US even though we have plenty of space, a nice sized garden and a dog friendly community surrounded by woodland, trails and lakes. A wonderful life for a pooch. But the wild west was a calling and we once again kiboshed the idea of adding a dog to our lives.

Then came 2020 and the subject of the dog reared its hind leg again from an unusual source. My husband who had been absolutely decided on the no dog situation shared with me a conversation he had with our oldest at a football match where there happened to be a family with a dog. His version is slightly different, but this was the gist:

“Papa, papa. I know we can never have a dog, but I wondered papa. Is there anyway I could have something? Even a little hamster or a guinea pig papa. I just so want something that I could love papa. And take care of papa”.

Imagine this with a 5-year old’s pleading voice, tears in eyes and praying hands. As my heart melted, my brain went “fuck”. She had done it. She had manipulated us like a total pro. The kids never ask us for anything, ever. This was the only thing and she had done it in her Romanian homeless toddler voice and crushed us.

Husband said, look we are stuck home. Going nowhere at Christmas. Perfect time to get a puppy when we are all here to give it lots of attention and training. And that was it. Next day I was on “Adopt a Pet.com”.