New Therapy

After five years of living with ALS, most people know we’ve developed a fairly dark sense of humor.  It was common to hear the phrase, “I was hoping to be 6 feet by the time I was 40; I just didn’t think it would be 6 feet under.”  Jennifer also received a considerable amount of grief for not letting her only child and dying husband have a dog.  Humor is a strong weapon against this disease even if it’s in the dark sense.

Funny how things change.  I’m now 41 years old, still in the ALS fight, but have remained only 5’7” tall.  I can’t use my 6 feet under joke anymore and now…we have a dog.  Yes, you read correctly.  On Friday, April 28 at 7 p.m. a puppy Bichon Frise was delivered to our door.

Christopher and I had been working on Jennifer for quite some time.  She was constantly barraged with the dark humor joke.  The ice was slowly melting as we kept visiting friends that had dogs.  Christopher’s eighth birthday was coming up and he proclaimed his responsibility of being able to take care of a new dog.

Research ensued via the Internet, pet stores and friends.  One of those friends just happened to have a Bichon Frise.  The cuteness and wonderful temperament of Sophie were hard to resist.  That was quite awhile ago but the memory lingered.

In all fairness, Jennifer loves dogs.  It was really the prospect of taking care of Christopher, me and a brand new puppy that overwhelmed her.  I can’t blame her for that.

Jennifer found a breeder in Longmont, Colorado that had one male Bichon Frise left.  It had all it shots and even a microchip implanted for identification.  As it turned out, the breeder decided he was too cute and kept the dog for himself.  What a bummer.  That would have been too convenient.

Jennifer decided to call our friends with Sophie and find out where they got her.  They had apparently referred this breeder to several other family members, all with joyful results.  Unfortunately, he was in Nebraska.  Jennifer thought that he might know some breeders in Colorado so she gave him a call last Tuesday.  As it turns out, he had two male dogs and happened to be coming to Denver on Friday.  Jennifer hung up both excited and nervous.  He sent us the following picture: click here.  Christopher’s birthday is May 5th and the an early birthday present just landed in our lap, literally.

For the next couple days, while Christopher was in school, Jennifer and I spent time shopping for dog stuff.  We had to buy books, a kennel, food, snacks, toys and yes, carpet spray for those accidents sure to come.  The financial commitment of a dog just slapped us in the face.

Christopher did know that we were looking for a pet but really had no timeline or immediate expectation.  As far as he knew we were still considering fish or maybe a guinea pig.

Jennifer was leaving for a women’s retreat with Cherry Hills Community Church in Breckenridge at 5 p.m. Friday.  The breeder, Norm was trying to get here from Nebraska by 4 p.m. so Jennifer would be able to meet our four legged friend before she left.  Norm called and was not going to be in town until later, so Jennifer missed him and didn’t return until Sunday.  She was kind of sad, but at the same time we were chuckling at the irony that Christopher and I wanted a dog, we got one and Jennifer was leaving for the toughest two days of adjustment.  Poetic justice!

Christopher had already been talking about what name he would give a pet if he got one.  When Norm arrived that evening, Christopher thought it was a cute dog and was petting him gently.  I had the video recorder on and announced that Mom and Dad wanted to wish him an early Happy Birthday and it was his dog.  He looked back at the camera blankly and asked, “This is my dog?” and, “I didn’t know that!”  Christopher asked if he could name him and much to our surprise…NOT…it was C.J., short for Christopher Jr.  They took to each other quite quickly even though C.J. was a little scared and timid.  Bichon Frises are known to cuddle and that’s all he wanted right now.  Christopher was more than happy to oblige.  We decided that C.J. could also stand for couch jockey.

The first two nights were accident free, but not uneventful.  Friday night, there was no whining like a puppy missing his mother or littermates, simply a small whimper to wake me up and let him outside.  It was about 2:30 a.m. and he did his thing during playtime for about a half-hour.  We went back inside to cuddle so he would get tired again.  The next night he woke up twice, one time even waking Christopher.  Christopher tried to get him to go back to sleep but to no avail, he wanted to play and eat.

Jennifer came home early Sunday afternoon and was overjoyed to meet C.J.  It didn’t take her long at all to bond with him.  Christopher and I told her of our adventures during the weekend.  She had had a wonderful time as well, but was happy to be home to greet our new puppy.  Oh yeah, she missed us too.

The final irony in all this is when the time came, Jennifer really ended up doing 95% of the work in finding C.J. and she is just as thrilled about this dog is Christopher and me.  She’s really just a softy with a big heart…but, we already knew that.

I have to work on some new jokes to keep the dark humor going!  Welcome to the family, C.J.