Can I Offer You a Time Share in a ....

 I had a couple of Very Bad Days followed by a Quite Good One, but in order to fully describe the good one I have to write this post about the next thing I'm a little embarrassed about (getting less so) first.

So we have a dog. More to the point these days, I have a dog. She's always been principally my dog, even though we got her as a birthday present for Eve and she came home on Eve's 12th birthday and Eve participated fully and enthusiastically in her care as much as she was able. But now Eve is not here. She kind of SHOULD be here, except she's doing a stupid Chemistry and Biology course in term one of summer school so she's in stupid Hamilton for a few more stupid weeks. Angus is likewise Not Here, and my husband, Matt? Well, a whole bunch of the time he's remarkably NOT HERE right now. Well, right NOW he's here, which thank goodness because it's garbage night, but lately he's been in Tokyo and Singapore and Vietnam and California and Friday he's leaving for Korea.

This adds up to a whole bunch of me being home alone with a dog. I love the dog, she's a really nice dog, I love reading with her snuggled up to me and walking with her and sleeping with her. But she is my dog not just in that she considers me the alpha, but in that she is quite needy and anxious. When we're both home, she'll sleep until six. When Matt is away, she frequently gets me up at four. Also, I am an introvert, so sometimes I look forward to being alone for a few days, but then I am never completely alone. 

This was fine, I was managing, we were hanging, things were fine. Then my friend Sonia (HI SONIA) asked if maybe she could take Lucy for a play date because her 8 year old daughter Avani loves dogs but her husband and other daughter aren't huge dog fans, and they were going to be away that day. So they took her for a Sunday afternoon and it was perfect - Sonia and Avani had a blast, Lucy had a blast, and I had some blissful completely alone time.

At some point I mentioned this at bar night, and Collette, whose family doesn't have a dog anymore and who also loves Lucy, volunteered that she would also be in for some Lucy time (I'm paraphrasing - I think more accurately the quote was "what the fuck, when do I get Lucy, I loved her first, she's mine, drop her off at six.")

I had to get comfortable with having someone else have Lucy while I wasn't away or at work. This seemed sort of like cheating? She's a tiny adorable animal who adores me, what was my problem? 

This kind of thinking is super dumb. Honestly, who cares if it's ...wait, it's not cheating, because there are no rules. Who cares what my problem is? I have so many widely varied and many-hued problems. Collette has a house of five people - often seven, including girlfriends - who all love dogs. Avani gives Lucy the exuberant, effusive eight-year-old attention she hasn't had in recent years on account of Eve not being eight years old anymore. Sometimes Sonia takes her to work at the seniors center, and then she's kind of a therapy dog. Then she comes home and is happy as heck to sleep on the couch while I read or amble around the park. She gets tons of attentions and some people who want a dog not full time get a dog part time. It's a situation full of massive win. 

The aforementioned husband and daughter who don't love dogs are slowly being won over by Lucy's winning personality. It's pretty fun rocking up to someone's door with her carrier and saying "someone order a dog?" 

So yes, counting when she goes to my parents' house a couple of days a week while I work, Lucy has four homes now - her main one and three satellite sites. Sometimes she goes to Collette's when we're all away. Sometimes she goes to Sonia's when I have work and book club and don't want to leave her twice in one day. And sometimes someone takes her when I'm at home and being entirely shiftless and lazy, and then I don't have to get up at four to let her out or worry about her if I want to run multiple errands, or do yoga with her sniffing my face anxiously or sticking her tongue in my ear when I'm in downward dog. 

And that's awesome.