Emotional Support Sisters

As I was heading into my house from the car one day, I saw a lady with a puppy (I live in a condo, so the garage is a little walk away from my house). My first thought was “Wow! She has a really cute puppy!” Then she came up and asked me if I knew who the puppy belonged to. I didn’t know the owner, and the lady didn’t look like she wanted to figure out what to do with a stray puppy, so I took her. In the short time I spent with this dog, I fell in love. After a couple of hours I sent her off with animal control so her owner could find her. That night I was thinking about this dog and I felt really strongly that we should adopt her. I guess life wasn’t crazy enough with med school and a toddler. My husband and I weren’t planning on getting a dog anytime soon, but we both felt good about it. We anxiously waited the allotted time period for someone to claim her and nobody did. So we got our sweet border collie pup, Nora.

The excitement quickly shifted to chaos because Nora was just 3 months old, super nippy, and wanted to play rough with my daughter (I didn’t have my daughter with me when I took Nora in for a few hours). I was incredibly overwhelmed and it had me seriously questioning our decision. A week or two after we adopted Nora, it was getting difficult enough that we decided to send her to a board and train facility. I had mixed emotions because I didn’t feel “tough” enough to train a puppy on my own, but my mental health was really suffering. Looking back I’m so glad we did send Nora to training because when she came back, she was the same sweet girl but had much better manners. Nora and my daughter are good friends now (for the most part.You know how toddlers are), and it is so sweet to see them interact. Nora is good for me in many ways too. I have to take her for a walk every day, so it gets me up and moving. She can also be a really good redirector for my daughter – if my daughter is about to get upset I can say “lets go give Nora a treat,” and it generally works! 

Fast forward to now. Nora is 6-7 months old and just got spayed. She gets to wear an e-collar (aka the cone of shame) for 10-14 days which is hard on all of us! Nora has no spatial awareness of the cone so she bumps into everything, including my daughter. My daughter is NOT a fan of being hit with the cone and I don’t blame her! My shins have taken a few hits and it is not pleasant. We’ve also had to restrict Nora’s activity which is not easy for such a high energy breed. Even with a sedative she just wants to play. 

Dealing with Nora this week got me thinking about Emotional Support Animals or ESA’s. I totally see the therapeutic side of having a pet, and I’ve seen them at work in my own life (we didn’t get Nora solely as an ESA but we thought it would be a perk). But if I’m being real, right now it feels more like an “EDA” or Emotional Distress Animal. I’m hoping once Nora is out of the cone of shame (and frankly, out of the puppy/adolescent phase) that she will be more of a joy to me again. 

If you’re considering getting a puppy when you have a toddler, I don’t recommend it. It’s really rough. But if you’re like me and feel like it’s what you should do, do it. We can have mental breakdowns together.

You know what I DO recommend? Having emotional support sisters. They’re pretty great, AND you don’t have to pick up their poop. Usually.

-Rae