Neat
On imperfect sits, secret dog lovers, and time apart that makes it work
It’s 6p on a Sunday afternoon and I’m curled up with two dogs in my lap watching a movie. My partner is a little less fond of lap dogs so he’s sequestered himself in the spare room watching his own thing.
When we met five years ago, he warned me outright that he wasn’t an animal person. He’s coexisted with cats before, but had never chosen of his own free will to have a pet. Childhood traumas hold onto us all and I never pushed against that too hard. As we’ve housesat across the country though, I’ve seen him warm up to different pets, and somehow most surprisingly are the dogs. There’s this one — Poindexter — a ten-pound little girl who’s so sweet with him. He’s taken to her well and the last time we were there he even started walking her on his own and petting her unprompted and without me there!
Our current sit though is the complete opposite — instead of two chill pups, we’ve got two very high-energy ones and it’s a lot. Even for me, the proclaimed dog lover. They’re sweethearts once they settle down, but they are almost always in a licky, barky, let-me-love-you frame of mind. He is not enjoying it as much as I am. We did have a little bit of an idea walking into it, but we were locked in. Wanting to stay in town longer, not pay for a hotel, and hoping for another option was all we had when we agreed to this. Definitely an example of this lifestyle choosing for you sometimes.
There is a light at the end of the tunnel that is actually coming much sooner than he could have hoped. He’s able to take off for the next sit while I wrap the existing one so he can take a breath and reset. I can enjoy the dogs without worrying about them being too much for him, and he can move on and recover and do some deep work that’s easier when we’re not together trying to go out and see and explore and do.
And that’s what our nomadic life looks like sometimes. Imperfect sits, animal chaos, and time spent apart so we can be our more complementary selves when we link up again.