Puppies Make Everything Better: PYL In-Flight: 06Mar2022

Welcome Back My Cuddly Passengers:

No, we haven’t replaced Violet (yet) but we naively volunteered to foster two puppies for two weeks. I had no idea what I was committing us to but I have no regrets despite the sleep deprivation, tiny scratch and bite marks, and dry hands from constant cleaning.

The one pictured above is Poppet, a 7-week-old lab/pitt mix named after one of the characters from one of my favorite books, The Night Circus.

And this is Widget, Poppet’s brother in both real life and the book.

These pictures truly don’t do them justice as they are absolutely adorable and pretty darn smart. Once they get additional shots and fixed (in about two weeks), they will be available for adoption through the Peninsula Humane Society. They already know to go to the back door to go out to go potty, are crate trained, and love to snuggle.

Widget is a little cuddle bug and crawls into my lap when he wants to avoid Poppet and when he wants to go to sleep.

He loves to drag toys into the crate and play with them until Poppet comes in to play. They do like to tussle in the crate so we’ve dubbed it Cage Fight although they are pretty gentle with each other.

Right next to Cage Fight is the X-Pen where the X Games occur. Lots of tumbling happening in there too although they don’t spend much time in there anymore.

We’re trying to tire them out with time outside where they are getting braver about exploring more of the yard.

While also eating leaves (Poppet).

Or twigs and branches like Widget.

Or posing for pictures like Ms. Photogenic here.

Until it’s time to go back inside.

And crash out in a puppy puddle or cuddle.

Which brings me back to why I even volunteered to do this last week.

Why would I take on a foster situation with two incredibly cute but demanding puppies where I am getting up every 2 hours for an hour to feed, let out to go potty, play with, clean up after, and get back to sleep?

Because my youngest, Finn, left for Wyoming and Utah for the NOLS Rockies Course for three months.

Finn is 17, finished high school early in December, and wanted to do something adventurous for their gap semester.

Why is this a big deal? They’ll be headed off to college in August/September so what’s a few months?

Because after tonight, I won’t talk to them or hear from them until at least April 1st. No texts. No phone calls, No letters, Nothing. And after April 3rd, I won’t see or hear from them until May 9th.

I wasn’t ready for this, but Finn was and is.

I knew I was going to have a tough time with this lack of communication as we abruptly became part of the empty-nesters club (Zeke is thrilled by the way…with the empty nester club, not the puppies). And I didn’t want to shift my mom-focus onto Zeke, so I agreed to foster two puppies having no clue about what I signed us up for. Seriously, no fucking clue (but I’d sign up for it all over again).

I wanted to be distracted and boy did I get what I asked for.

On a more serious note, there’s some crazy shit going on in Ukraine right now on top of what continues to go on with the crazy shit in our country. Covid. Anti-trans legislation. Anti-women legislation. Racist legislation. It’s a lot and can feel very overwhelming. I get it. I feel it too.

So, you get puppies today because puppies make everything better.

Even at 2 AM when I am cleaning up puppy poop and giving a puppy a bath because they’ve rolled in it.

These little nuggets of love, energy, and poop remind me of the basics, including staying in the moment, slowing down, and that I was (and am) a pretty damn good mom despite my mistakes and regrets (saving this for another post).

Please make sure to take some time to savor the good stuff amongst all the bad stuff and maybe donate some time or money to one of the many good causes out there that are needed because of some seriously fucked up people trying to do some seriously bad harm to others all for the sake of power and money. Seriously.

May you find peace, acceptance, and love today as you navigate being human.

With much love and gratitude,

Terri

P.S. Take the controls and be the pilot in your own life. It’s a beautiful day to fly, and you are cleared for takeoff.

Song: Who Let the Dogs Out by Baja Men

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