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Thursday, July 28, 2011
Are you a crazy doggy mommy too?
Today, I uploaded my 100th photo of my dog Balto on Facebook.
Yes, I have a problem. Balto knows it, too. He has started cringing, or at the very least ceasing his cute behavior, whenever I pull out my camera-phone.
We adopted Balto last October when one of my friends from high school posted a photo of him on Facebook saying her boss had found him in Cincinnati but already had two dogs and couldn’t keep him. He was found on Baltimore Avenue, hence the name, which he happens to share with a famously heroic husky who led a sled dog team to deliver crucial life-saving medicine to a remote outpost in Alaska. The story was later turned into an animated movie. His full name, though, is Baltimore Lando Calrissian Becker - the middle name is after a character in Star Wars played by Billy Dee Williams. (This is what happens when geeks get a dog.)
We love Balto to bits, and in many ways he is one spoiled pooch. We’re not completely irresponsible: we exercise him often, don’t overfeed him, bathe and groom him regularly, and he is well-behaved and trained. Well, mostly. He’s still a puppy so he has his disobedient moments, but they’ve been fewer and farther between as of late. I’m a big fan of the Dog Whisperer and tried to follow Cesar Millan’s methods for the first month or so, but caved to my own affection for this dog.
So, no, we’re not perfect “pack leaders,” but he’s far from a problem dog - he stays in our unfenced backyard off-leash, he’s good in the car and great with other dogs, he LOVES people (his only problem there is jumping on them) and he almost never barks. Let’s just hope he stays this well-behaved as he gets older. I’ve heard dogs’ personalities can change drastically after they reach age 2, and he’s about 15 months, as near as we can tell.
I have a feeling this doesn’t bode well for me when I become the mother of an actual human being. Not necessarily the parenting part - I think I’ve shown that I can be a responsible, if somewhat lenient, parent - but I am going to be one of those moms who inundates her friends, family and strangers with photos of her kid. I’ve already got the Mommy Goggles for Balto - everything he does is just the cutest thing ever, he’s so handsome, etc. It’s hard for me to walk by the pet aisle at the grocery store and not pick him up a new chew toy or ball. I talk to him all the time as a proxy for talking to myself and have humanized him in many ways. Sometimes his facial expressions are so human, it’s hard not to imagine what he’s thinking.
I will say I now have plenty of practice chasing after a very active, very mobile creature. He is a lab-terrier mix, and he sure has the lab energy! He is FAST as all get-out and incredibly agile, switching directions completely in the blink of an eye. When he gets really wound up, he runs from one corner of the house to the other at top speed with a look of sheer ecstasy on his face and sometimes makes little “huffing” or grunting noises, which makes me just die laughing.
I’m just wondering if this ever wears off - as a doggy mommy or a human mommy. Do you ever stop thinking your pet/kid is the smartest/cutest/funniest/bestest thing that ever existed? Is there an end to the snapshots, or do I just have to learn to curb the urge to share? (Believe me, I have more photos of Balto on my phone than I have even posted on Facebook.)
Anyone else consumed by puppy love? I’ll indulge your stories here. :)
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