I didn’t want a dog. But my wife wanted to get one. She reveled whenever she had the chance to baby-sit a friend’s Pomeranian mix that curled up at her feet while she worked at her computer.
She already had a dog when I first met her, a lively and cute Basenji mix, which I easily bonded with. When she went back east to spend Thanksgiving with her family I offered to take care of the dog in my condominium. I never had a dog but I walked it, fed it and it cajoled me into sleeping at the foot of my bed.
My benevolent employers, who had a dog already wandering in and out of their work quarters, didn’t mind the Basenji hanging around near my desk.
I fell in love with the Basenji as well as my future wife. “We are a package deal” she said. We co-owned her for 12 years, even after we became parents.
We went 14 years without a pet and our son grew up and no longer needed our constant attention. We got used to not having to take care of an animal.
But my wife said she wanted a dog. She saw one at Marin Humane that had a similar coloration to our Basenji. We went to look at it but didn’t have a sense of bonding you want to feel with your pet. We passed.
Nothing happened for a year. But then she wanted to look again. She saw a photo on the its website of a small dog that piqued her attention. She went in person to look.
“I’m interested in a dog I saw today” she told me. “Can you go with me and take a look?”
I didn’t want another dog but begrudgingly agreed to meet her there as I worked three blocks from Marin Humane. We saw the dog — an underweight mixture of a Jack Russell terrier and a miniature dachshund. She was a rescue, we later learned, from Bakersfield, where several Good Samaritans went to transport homeless dogs to Marin County to be adopted.
The handler asked if we wanted to take her for a short walk together and I held the leash. She was a cute little thing, estimated to be 2 years old and had a sweet disposition. We were told she was shy but had no apprehensions in walking beside me. We bonded.
I told my wife, “I don’t want a dog but if you have to have one, this is the one I want.”
Two days later I came home on a Friday afternoon and there was the dog in our home, sitting on a makeshift dog bed in our living room. “Well, you did it,” I said.
“I knew you wouldn’t mind” my wife sweetly smiled at me. She named her Emmy.
Emmy has been part of our family for over six years now. She is a lively breed and isn’t quite the type to curl up beside my wife while she works. I became mostly retired and usually take her on three walks a day. Sometimes she gets lucky and we hop into my car and take a longer stroll on one of the many nature trails near our home. I have some mild neurological issues and the best prescription for me is to stay active and move around a lot. My goal is 10,000 steps a day.
She is now a spoiled rescue dog. But she is the one who rescued me.
David Berger is a San Rafael resident. IJ readers are invited to share their stories of love, dating, parenting, marriage, friendship and other experiences for our How It Is column, which runs Tuesdays in the Lifestyles section. All stories must not have been published in part or in its entirety previously. Send your stories of no more than 500 words to lifestyles@marinij.com. Please write How It Is in the subject line. The IJ reserves the right to edit them for publication. Please include your full name, address and a daytime phone number.
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