Michael: From Pup to Dog

Shadows to sunshine;
The afternoon turns away
From the winter’s gloom.

Tuesday, October 25, 2016

Shortly after we moved here a almost two years ago, our neighbors got a very cute black puppy with a white stripe going down its chest. That pup is just about full grown. And, although he’s not quite two, being a Panamanian dog, he’s had to grow up quick and it shows.

He’s still very friendly toward us, even rolling over in a puppy like deferential move. And he still craves affection over food. Often not leaving despite the offer of treats. He would rather be hugged.

But despite his youth, he often shows up with large ticks hanging off him, blood on the top of his head, infected eyes and clotted gashes. He’s a mess.

And he now roams far away from our small neighborhood into town, though he’s usually back in the afternoon.

He seems to want to join a pack but unlike many of the dogs here he hasn’t gone off to join up with a few other dogs. He apparently is still holding out hope that he’ll be part of his human pack; the neighbor with the two young boys. When they’ve been gone a while he’ll sometimes sit outside our gate, and we feel he wouldn’t mind if we were his pack. We just don’t know how to explain to him that’s not how us goofy humans operate.