The Big Ragu

Big day for the boy as he celebrated his first birthday!! And what a year it's been: Born in a garage; dumped at a shelter because he had a cold; I take him home and he gets pneumonia; in ICU for five days then has to use a nebulizer for two weeks; gets neutered (sorry guys); swallows a squeaky from a toy so has to get an x-ray; gets papilloma warts on his lips probably from the dog park and because he has a low immune system from the pneumonia; and finally last weekend gets his ear nipped at the dog park because he grabbed a ball from a rottie he was playing with! He's fine now but my apt did look like a crime scene as blood splattered everywhere every time he shook his big head.

As I've told many people, Carmine is the polar opposite of Clarice.  And as Cesar Milan says "you don't get the dog you want, you get the dog you need" so I guess CTBR (my abbreviation for “Carmine the Big Ragu”) and I connected for a reason beyond my knowledge.  But it's ok because I love him. And he's a sweet clown-of-a-dog.  So in a sense, he really is similar to Clarice.

And I know someday he'll be calm and lazy, and I'll long for his crazy pup days or rather his adolescent days!!

I think we hit a milestone this weekend: At the park, I noticed his leash was fraying, so I figured we would stop at the store and buy him a new one on the way home. As we left the dog park, he put on his big foot brakes—he usually does this as we’re leaving the dog park similar to a child refusing to leave the playground. I usually give a slight tug and he’ll walk and then stop and we continue our start/stop dance until we’re out of the park when he starts walking just perfectly. This time, the second or third time I gave him a tug, the leash snapped in half in my hand and I went falling backwards. I thankfully landed on my big butt cracking up the whole time. My friend Jane was walking with me with her two dogs and she freaked out:  “Maria are you ok?”  I couldn’t stop laughing as I watched Carmine stand still in his own doggie shock and then he came rushing over to me, climbed onto my lap and licked my face!!!! I was thrilled!  My boy realized that I’m his mom and I was “hurt” and came rushing to my aid ignoring all the other dogs and other people he usually is in such a rush to drag me back to. The memory of it still makes me smile.

Yesterday it snowed in NYC and at times the snowflakes were huge, looking like post-its!  When I came home, Carmine took his first walk in the snow….and he liked it!  So I brought him to the dog park where I made snowballs (good packing snow) and he endlessly chased them as if they were tennis balls.  And the best part was throwing the snowballs in the air and Carmine would jump up and try to catch them in his boxer-mix way. A little confused when they broke up on his face, he then ate the snow as if it was a new fluffy treat!

So the boy who had a rough start is now maturing into a fine young adolescent. Well at least he is today as he snoozes and lets me write in peace.