Meet The Pearsons

Our first night together was actually...tolerable. My new black ball of fur whined for about 30 minutes in the crate next to my bed. Occasionally when it got too loud I would give the crate a slight thump and follow it with a "Quincy, quiet!" but for the most part I did my best to ignore the whimpering, falling asleep with my pillow over my head. I slept lightly as if my children were babies ~ listening for that sound of distress or of the apnea monitor going off or of the cries of a child with his fat thigh stuck in the grates of the crib. I felt better knowing that there was little that could go wrong with Quincy sleeping in the carrier. It was snug with plenty of air vents and I had wrapped him in the towel scented by his mother and litter mates. Two or three times during the night I would hear him stir and I would gently lift him and take him outside to "Hurry Up" which would become his command to evacuate on cue, an important first step to beginning a search so he wouldn't contaminate the trail for the other search dogs.

I was surprised how much his care mimicked that of raising my twins when they were infants. I learned that it was never a good idea to interact with them when changing their diapers in the middle of the night as it would result in hours of creative attempts to get them back to sleep again. I used this knowledge to my advantage and quietly returned him to the crate between potty-breaks and was able to easily get two to three more hours of sleep between rest stops.

By six o'clock in the morning I realized that Q was ready to get up for good. I went ahead and fixed his kibble and while I watched him eat I decided I couldn't take the stench of him any longer. I put an inch or so of warm water in the tub and laughed out loud at his splashing around in it awkwardly with his paws. He quickly doubled in size after a good toweling off and within 10 minutes he was out like a light for a few more hours.

Meeting Marley The Great Dane

Our first morning together we spent going to see Dr. Hood,  a friendly veterinarian who had a natural ease about him when it came to handling Quincy. It only took one puppy-kiss before he had won over the hearts of the entire staff. The rest of the day we spent riding around together, visiting friends and learning to handle the feeling of a moving vehicle without throwing up. So far that skill has gone well.

The call I had been waiting months for finally came in as I drove home from work. LaSAR had just been placed on stand-by for a human remains search over the weekend. I was excited knowing that finally I was going to be able to go on a live-search as a flanker. And then it hit me. I had a brand new puppy that had been with me for less than 24 hours. He was too young to come on the search, even as a passenger. I felt torn as I needed to be the main person in his world, especially this first week, to establish our bond. As his partner I am the sole one to feed him, take him to "hurry-up", and put him to bed. I need to socialize him in his new environment and keep him safe from overly-eager children, family pets, and visitors. This week we weren't even to attend team training as our directive was to BOND. My heart sunk as I watched a golden opportunity to learn the dynamics of a live search with the team vanish. There was no telling when the next opportunity might come.

He wiggles when he runs, his butt like a metronome that is out of synch with the rest of his body. He makes me laugh when he attempts things for the first time as there is no grey area with him, it is all or nothing. He has no hesitation to hurl himself face first into a puddle of mud, or balance walk across a makeshift bridge built by the kids with wooden planks and bricks to create a narrow path over a ditch of rain water that pools in the backyard. When he wrestles with Roonie, our family mutt, he topples heavy-head first with feet and body following in awkward progression like a drunk trying to catch himself from the inevitable face-plant. His face is that of an old man, wrinkled and wise and as if there is a mystery of deep knowledge hidden behind his eyes. He is a thinker, a problem solver, and a fearless explorer.

That is surely going to challenge me as his boldness grows.