Quiz #44. Large
What was my biggest purchasing mistake in April and what can dogs teach us about working from home? Steve's Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz for May 3, 2020.
“It’s a miracle.”
As Betsy reported these words spoken to her, she told us they were delivered seriously, without hyperbole and just a statement of fact.
Last week, Betsy took her dog Brownie to the vet--the same vet we’ve used for years with our many dogs. Brownie had developed pink eye. In these days of social distancing, the veterinary assistant took the dog from Betsy in the parking lot and brought Brownie inside to be examined by the vet. After the exam, the assistant returned the dog to Betys’s vehicle and the vet called Betsy with his assessment.
He led with “It’s a miracle”--and it had nothing to do with Brownie’s eye. As part of every exam, the dogs are weighed. Brownie had dropped 11 pounds since her last visit. The vet was astounded. The eye, Betsy reported, was secondary in what he told her, “Pink eye, give the dog some drops and it will go away in a few days. Call me back if it doesn’t.”
Of course, Betsy knew the reason for the miraculous weight loss. Since the start of the pandemic, Betsy and her dogs, Brownie and Fred, have been staying with her at her apartment in Hoboken. Betsy’s been teaching her 4th grade class remotely from that apartment for 7 weeks since March 16th. Betsy’s school is in our town and it’s just a few blocks from our house. When her school was open before the pandemic, first thing in the morning before heading to the gym, Betsy would drop off her dogs at our house for doggie daycare. They’d be there when we woke up and Betsy would pick them up at the end of the school day, breaking up the afternoon for our dogs and letting them all out to take care of their business in the middle of the day with Sara and me at work, in an office, away from home (remember that?). In the mid-morning, the 4 dogs would be together and with me before I headed out for the 11:30am train to the city.
Brownie and Fred with Happy on the couch on what would be their last day at doggie daycare in our house on Friday, March 13, 2020. On that day, our town announced that schools would be closed and teachers would be holding their classes remotely beginning Monday, March 16th.
Sara and I were the doggie grandparents. And like any good grandparents, we were more than a little indulgent with peanut butter and other treats when Brownie and Fred were in our house. For 7 weeks, Brownie had been treat-free. This was no miracle. This was the pandemic.
In the pandemic, there are countless examples (and news stories) of grandparents missing their grandchildren--and missing spoiling their grandchildren. But this miracle goes beyond spoiling someone else’s dogs. Even with our own dogs, Sara and I are very bad with treats.
When a neighbor’s son did some dog sitting when we had two black labs, Junior and Sally, he called Sally the biggest lab he’d ever seen. Sally thought that ice cream sandwiches were dog food because, well, I would buy ice cream sandwiches and give them to the dogs as a summer treat. On a hot night, I like them--and, turns out, the dogs loved them too.
During the two months before Stella’s knee surgery in January, she needed to be given morning medication. Sara started off giving her the pills inside a small peanut butter sandwich she made each morning. With 3 other dogs in the house, the morning routine included a peanut butter sandwich cut into 4 squares, 3 placebos. (Don’t tell Betsy.) The peanut butter sandwiches were followed by treats--Milk-Bones--dispensed from the open box that the dogs knew sat on the top of the refrigerator. Two weeks after the surgery, Stella went back to taking only a cranberry supplement pill in the morning. (Sara says I can’t discuss why. Even a lady dog deserves some secrets.)
With the pandemic, Brownie and Fred are no longer part of the morning feeding. Bread has also been hard to come by. Sara still uses peanut butter for Stella’s morning pill but puts it on top of crackers and now Milk-Bones when she gives it to Stella. Happy also gets a peanut butter bone. Stella eats hers right away. Happy takes hers to the living room and likes to savor the treat, licking the peanut butter before actually biting into the treat itself.
When the pandemic started, we stocked up on Milk-Bones but they were out of stock and not delivered as part of our April 13th grocery delivery. Sara said the dogs would have to tough it out, but I could not take it. I turned to Amazon and ordered three 10-pound boxes of Milk-Bones. I made a mistake. I ordered “Large” bones. They’re big. Each one 4-inches long.
“Large” dog bisquits: my biggest purchasing mistake of April, 2020.
The problem is that Stella eats the Large bones quickly and Happy does not. The Large bones are literally too much for Happy to handle--like a child with a big toy they don’t know how to play with just yet. And so, we've watched this power dynamic unfold. Stella eats her bone in the kitchen. Happy takes hers into the living room, but she doesn’t eat it—she guards it. Stella comes out into the living room, sees the uneaten bone with her sister--and wants it. They begin a game of cat and mouse over the bone that Happy protects--and now uses to taunt her big sister.
Taunting is already a little-sister game that Happy has played since Stella began social distancing in the kitchen while she rehabbed her knee. For the first 8 weeks of Stella’s recovery in February and March, she needed to be gated in the kitchen to keep her from running around with the other dogs. Sara put out a dog bed and dog blanket for Stella. Happy has become very jealous of that blanket and now that the gate to the kitchen is open, she tries to stake a claim on that blanket with Stella.
“Whose blanket is it?” Stella’s or Happy’s?
At other times when Stella is not in the kitchen, Happy grabs the blanket whenever she can, taking it out of the kitchen and into the living room, claiming it as her own--even though she doesn’t lie on top of it when it’s not in the kitchen. It sits on the living room floor—as if Happy’s saying, “It’s not yours, you know?”
Happy—messing with her sister.
With a broken living room chair now in the middle of the kitchen (left over from Stella’s rehab and now a part of the “new normal” in the kitchen as outlined in Quiz # 31. “It looks weird.”), it’s not unusual for me to eat some of my meals in the chair--at floor level. The dogs gather around me and know that when I am done, their table-food will come. Morning oatmeal, no problem.
Stella’s chair is now a coronavirus staple in the kitchen.
If Sara and I talk for too long in the morning, it’s Stella who barks and reminds us that it’s time for her peanut butter. Stella’s also become the alpha protector for Sara. If Sara gets upset (Was it something I said?), Stella literally gives me the stink eye. A black dog with dark eyes, without moving her head, she looks at me from the side with her eyes, the whites of her eyes a reminder for me to stay in my lane.
The dogs have taken to claiming Sara and me during these work from home days. Stella stays in the bedroom where Sara now works and Happy stays with me in the guest room/ office. It’s good they don’t have to choose. On video conference calls, I often bring in a shot of Happy, sleeping comfortably at my side. On more than a few of those video calls, people with partners and pets, report whether their dog has chosen to stay with them or their partner. There is more than a secret satisfaction when the dog decides to choose one stay-at-home partner over another.
It’s all part of our 24/7 stay-at-home world--living in the same house with the same people and the same pets.
What are the dogs teaching us?
Dogs can’t speak--and disagreements are often unspoken.
Dogs can’t write quizzes, telling the world what they want others to know about them without hiding their bones in another room.
Unconditional love remains. Imperfect though we may be, the dogs still love us.
And treats? They’re a good thing--especially in a pandemic.
Live Large.
What did NOT happen?
A. After reading Saturday’s quiz, Quiz #42. Sorry Seagulls, my sister Susan reminded me that my brother Richard has talked about why he wants to come back in his next life as a seagull: the ability to fly, wonderful ocean views and an unlimited food supply on land and on the water. (I am not sure how he feels about being Utah’s aviary all-star.);
B. My sister Ginny gave me my first 5-star review for the quiz for Quiz #42. Sorry Seagulls, loving the old photos from our childhood (while also offering some corrections on more than a few typos);
C. Betsy told us the details of the “It’s a miracle” remark on Saturday afternoon in a backyard, socially distant visit with Sara, John and me. Betsy loves Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups so during the visit, I gave her the last homemade chocolate, peanut butter treat that I had made. She told me it was a 10;
D. John and I decided to make more chocolate, peanut butter treats from the recipe recommended by sports blogger, @jomboy. They were the best ones yet--with more chocolate on the sides to keep most of the peanut butter inside the frozen cup;
E. On Saturday night, I made breakfast for dinner with bacon, scrambled eggs and pancakes. (My pancakes were made with chocolate chips.) For dessert, we had the @jomboy treats. No chocolate for the dogs--you have to draw a line somewhere--but they did get some excess peanut butter from the homemade treats.
Socially distant visit with Betsy
Near-perfect chocolate, peanut-butter treat
Editor’s Note:
If you woke up Sunday morning with an empty feeling—and no Steve’s Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz—I took the day off. You didn’t miss a thing.
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Answer #44. Large, May 3, 2020
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Want more?
Here’s the next quiz in the series: Quiz #45. “Strange Condition.”
Here’s the previous quiz in the series: Quiz #43. Sorry Seagulls.
Here’s the first quiz in the series: Quiz #1. Stella and Social Distancing, March 13, 2020
Here is an archive of all the quizzes.
The quiz is explained here: Steve’s Stay-at-Home Coronavirus Quiz.
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