DIANA REPUBLIC

I am back in the market, scanning the match site and making plans to meet new…….dogs. We were planning on adding another to pooch to our pack before Larry was diagnosed with cancer. We are all about the family planning and fully intended to adopt a third dog sometime this spring, but we tabled that because it would have been unfair to expose a sick dog to a puppy. I didn’t know how long our time with him would be, but I didn’t want Larry to have to share us with a baby dog. So it is not that I am trying to replace the Labraweasel, as if I could. It would also be totally be unfair to saddle a new dog with that responsibility. A new puppy will only partially fill the hole in my heart, but I will take what I can get.

That being said, I am dating again. Choosing a puppy, for me at least, is a similar process. I don’t really have a type except to say that I am not partial to purebreds. Mostly they remind me of really handsome WASPy guys with no quirks or character. I mean, a Golden Retriever has that Chad Somethington look, an Ivy League grad from a white picket fence home. They make for a really nice guy and dog, sweet and good looking, but predictable and kind of boring. I am all about the unpredictability of rescuing a mutt (as it happens Bob is a purebred – Polish American Boobhound, but he was definitely a rescue).

So as I search the match site, www.petfinder.com and the local shelters I am looking for someone whose mix of breeds speaks to me. I don’t know what that is yet. I will know, as I did with Bob, when I see it.

Yesterday I went on my first date with a female Bernese/Rottweiller puppy. She was sweet, but to be perfectly honest, she didn’t look like her picture on the web site. She had clearly put on weight and had aged some. I am not completely superficial and I could have gotten past the deceit, but there was no connection. I just didn’t feel her. 

My second date was with a male Beagle-ish puppy. He was cute and lively, but really just one of the guys. I like a guys’ guy, but seriously, he wouldn’t pay any attention to me at all. He just tugged at the leash trying to get to the other dogs. It was clear: he was just not that into me.

I didn’t expect to meet the perfect dog on my first couple of dates, so I am not disappointed. I am probably not ready just yet anyway. I am just getting to the swing of dating dogs again. The more dogs I meet, the easier the decision will be when I meet the right one. Tomorrow we are going to a Pet Expo, which as far as I can tell is the canine equivalent of speed dating. I can’t wait.