Griffindog

It's a rainy Sunday morning here in Columbia. With half the weekend behind us, we're enjoying a quiet morning before we start preparing for the week. I personally have a stack a mile high to grade, Matt has employee schedules to make and the dogs have lots of sleeping, licking and chewing to attend to.

Many of you know how difficult it was to transition Griffin to apartment living after his first initial summer with me on my parents' farm. I was plagued with guilt over his unhappiness. We took walks lasting hours and hours. Countless toys were purchased to keep him busy. Bitter apple spray was applied to everything I owned and the apartment the two of us shared. He sprayed his crate with all manner of bodily fluids in rebellion when I was gone. The vet put him on an expensive medication called Clomacalm that made him act stoned, for which I also felt much guilt. I paid for expensive training classes and went to the dog park. I bought a 40 foot training leash so I could play fetch with him in the small patch of grass outside my apartment. Letting him off the leash would have been as good as saying goodbye.

More than once, I felt like it was in his best interest to give him up, which broke my heart. As obnoxious and persistent as he can sometimes be, I can't imagine life without him. Before "Marley and Me" was a film in theaters, a good friend once told me Griffin was my "Marley." I think she may have been right. I'm not certain, but I can guess that that end to that story is a sad one. Just think of Old Yeller - minus the rabies and the gun, I can imagine there is some sort of loss. And I'm not ready to face that for my journey with Griffin.

These days, he's a happy Border Doodle living in a home with a big fenced in yard and a friend to play with. He still has frustrating moments, but he shows signs of loyalty I had never seen until this year. In our third year of being together he's growing, albeit slowly, out of puppyhood and into a much more mellow version of himself. The vet likes the 5 pounds he has gained in the last year. He takes it as a sign that he's not so nervous. He has been off the Clomacalm for over a year now, and I don't think he has seen his crate for more than a combined total of two hours in the past 10 months since we moved into the new house. And all involved are happy with that.

On this rainy morning, he occupies himself with one of those toys purchased almost three years ago to keep him busy. It is one of the few remaining in our possession and definitely his favorite. Last week, I brought it out of retirement because both Griffin and Bama were deserving of a treat.

Normally this Kong is filled with peanut butter and given to him for a snack, but today, he enjoys it without anything tasty inside. Forty minutes after taking the video below, he is still bumbling quietly around the living room in his own little world :-)