Too Much Dog For One Woman

Pistachio is too much dog for one woman.

Pistachio requires a lot of attention and affection. In return, he gives a lot of attention and affection. Ours is an affectionate and cuddly family but it is also a family that respects each other's personal space. All of us need alone time. We also respect each other's alone time. Pistachio has no concept of personal space and he also does not believe in alone time. He follows me into the bathroom for communal pooping, and waltzes about my feet as I shower. This dog is more intrusive than my own children.

After a few months, Pistachio is only just starting to stay calm when left alone in a room for 10 minutes. Pistachio believes that I cannot be trusted to find my way back to my study room from the bathroom. He must personally escort me there and back. Once in a while, Pistachio goes crazy happy. When this mood takes him, he zooms all over the place, bounds onto sofas and overturns things. He also gets into fierce altercations with the laundry, the floor cushions and all the electrical cords. I only have to turn my back for 5 minutes to later discover a scene of carnage: broken spectacles, chewed up clothes pegs, dented shampoo bottles, shredded toilet paper rolls. My warrior dog has vanquished all his foes!

Pistachio is too much dog for me alone.

So, I decided to share Pistachio with M and The Daughter. The amazing thing about Pistachio is this. He can absolutely still make all 3 of us feel loved and appreciated. He knows how to distribute his attention in such a way that none of us 3 ladies feel neglected, nor unloved.

As time passes, I do realise that the one of us 3 who loves him the most, is M. For me, Pistachio is only a nice companion dog. It would not shake my world to lose him. For M, it is different. 2 nights ago, M had a nightmare about being in a capsized boat, along with Pistachio and M's best friend. M decided to save her human friend first and then ran along the river bank after Pistachio, whose head dipped in and out of the raging river waters, yelping in terror. Then, Pistachio's head disappeared completely, and his yelps turned into silence. M was in despair. She told her friend, "I should not have saved you first! I should have saved my dog. Now, my dog is dead."

Down the river, M found the lifeless body of Pistachio, with a bleeding wound on his flank.

M woke up from her dream, frantic. She grabbed Pistachio from his crib and then hugged him to sleep for the rest of the night. For all of the next day, she kept Pistachio close to her side, worried that her dream presaged a terrifying reality.

This morning, Pistachio started screaming in pain. I turned around to find him with his teeth clamped onto the electrical cord, unable to let go. Electricity was buzzing through him, and trying to escape from his fur. His eyes were wide and bulging. M burst into the room like she had seen the hounds of hell. She cradled Pistachio in her arms like a Mother who had almost lost a child.

Now, M does not trust me anymore to dogsit her baby. I think I am far better with human children than dog kids. I mean, human kids don't chew through electrical cords!