Improvised Therapy Dog

My dog’s name is Peanut. He is a four-year-old puggle, which means he is half beagle and half pug. The vet said that he is actually more pug than beagle, even though his features are clearly more beaglee. I guess you could say he is the pug that hangs outside the convention center in San Diego year round wearing a beagle costume. You could possibly say he’s a pug dipped in beagle sauce, but that might be an overreach. He truly is man’s best friend, because he loves me unconditionally. For the first year of our “relationship”, I couldn’t stand him. There wasn’t a single ounce of love in my heart for him, and I made sure that he knew that it was an iron clad fact that I did not like him whatsoever. I know… I know… “He’s so cute”…. “Look at his adorable old man face”… “You’re a heartless monster”, but that’s the way I felt at the time.

I probably felt that way, because I really didn’t want a dog. It was a spur of the moment decision… a knee jerk reaction… a last ditch effort to circumvent what felt like a hopeless situation at the time. I needed a way to help my middle son cope with an extreme case of fear that had a death grip on his life… and frankly, mine too. I don’t remember if this happened before or after he was officially diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome and Aspergers, but it was one of the hardest times I’ve ever faced. He couldn’t walk from one room in the house to another without either my wife or I walking with him. At night, I would have to lay next to him in his bedroom till he fell asleep. When he woke up (which usually was less than two hours from when he went to sleep) and realized that I wasn’t there with him, he would scream at the top of his lungs. After months of  waking up as many as ten times a night, I was mentally, physically, emotionally, and even spiritually exhausted, I was willing to try almost anything to provide some relief to my boy and a little normalcy for the rest of the family.

After a couple of trips to our local shelters and a few treks around the interwebs, my wife finally came across a lady who worked for a shelter on the other side of the state. She had a cute little five-month-old puggle puppy who was also in a desperate situation. The shelter was a kill shelter, so if she couldn’t find him a good home…I wasn’t looking for a companion, a guard dog, or another mouth to feed. I was looking for a short term fix. And if Peanut could serve as a security blanket till my wife and I could figure out what to do next… then I would count that as a win. Four years later, he is so much more than an improvised therapy dog. He is a family member and friend.