We Got a Puppy! Meet Boba T. Komo.
Becoming dog dads with one week’s notice.
The backstory
I’m writing this on my phone as Boba bites at his chew toy next to me on the couch. I tried typing this on a laptop, but Boba insisted he’d had enough of dad staring at a computer screen for today. I wasn’t about to pin a teething puppy against my MacBook Air. Hold please while he tries to hump my forearm. Is that even a thing for 10-week old puppies?!
[15 minutes later after a potty break]
We’re back. He’s in his play pen learning to self-soothe. Am I using that term correctly? #newdogdad
Some of you have been on Team Aaron since last fall when I first started to daydream of adding a four-legged Komo to our family. E wasn’t 100% opposed to the idea, but let’s just say he wasn’t spending his screen time looking for dogs. I on the other hand, and those in my corner, knew we’d be great pup parents. Perhaps the fenced in backyard planted the first seeds in our move from condo to house. Point is, this was a long time coming. My search was a multipronged approach from weekend trips to the Animal Humane Society (pre-COVID), to setting alerts on Petfinder, bookmarking local rescues and researching breeders within a two-hour drive radius, because you know I can’t do long trips in a car....Duluth is an exception.
More background on the search, E is allergic to pet dander. Like, puffy eyes if he touches a cat kind of allergic. So, a hypo dog was our only option. For any of you that have adopted a dog, you know how few and far between hypo dogs are to find. Not to mention, in the age of COVID, they are barely on the website for a day. High demand, plus the fact that our application was at the discretion of meticulous foster fams, our lack of prior doggo experience wasn’t in our favor. Also, many rescues like to send dogs to homes where they’ll have adoptive fur and human siblings. Both of which, we could not offer.
Fast forward to this summer. I’m Petfinder’s most active user and I’m basically spamming E with any hypo dog I find via AirDrop. That’s a pro tip for anyone lobbying for a furbaby. Love a good pop-up tactic. Annoying, yet effective. And E caved! He started to do his search for nearby hypo breeders and it was maybe a few days before he stumbled upon a hobby breeder with Shih Tzu puppies ready to go home within a week. Bonus! E grew up with three Shih Tzus. So, we felt confident it was the breed for our speed. Much like our house, it was a stroke of good luck and timing. After reaching out to the breeder, we drove to Monticello the next day and got a pick of the litter. One week later, we welcomed Boba home.
Mind you, we’re going on week three of puppy parenting, so we’re no pros doling out advice. But, below are a few things we’ve had to improvise or run back to Target to pick up because it wasn’t on the new puppy checklists you’ll find on the interweb.
First three lessons learned
1. Boba is real tiny. Like maybe four pounds and he could barely get his chin over the rim of the smallest 2-cup bowls I bought. So, we’re using our shoyu (soy sauce) dishes - which we typically reserve for sushi night - as his food dish. Make it work!
2. Hardwood floors are hard for puppies. Although real cute to see him slip and slide across the floor, we quickly learned that we needed to provide him some traction if he was ever going to comfortably exist in his play pen. So, although not its intended use, we got this rubber-backed utility accent rug which is easy to clean, aesthetically neutral and the perfect size for his play pen. Now, Boba has no problem getting up on his bed.
3. Have hand towels handy. Why? Because puppies find a way to get wet. Wether it’s the morning dew on your grass, a clumsy water break between tug of war, potty time in the rain or an accident (they happen!), you’ll want towels that aren’t precious to you. We have about a dozen of these hand towels (in charcoal gray) that we bought for at-home workouts, but Boba has commandeered at least a couple.
Got a furbaby? What do you remember about the first few weeks of adjusting to puppy parenting? Comment below, we’d love to know.
