Puppy Love

I always love having a reason to get up and relish in the refreshing atmosphere of early morning before sliding into the regular grind of school life. Having recently acquired a puppy, daily walks at four o'clock in the morning have completely redefined what constitutes "early" for my boyfriend and I.

Our precious bundle of joy blissfully ignores wistful calls of "Cora," we project in her direction. Her name is inspired by the Italian word for brave: coraggiosi. And brave she is. She can ascend and descend whole flights of stairs, climb over tree stumps and chases butterflies, dashing at a full prance.

She also has daggers for teeth, and she loves getting them caught on any type of fabric within reach. Sweatpants? Yes. The couch? Heck yes! The carpet? Oh man, you have no idea!! At least the scraping of tiny puppy teeth makes an unmistakable scratching noise on the carpet, so we can catch her in the act before serious damage is done. She also loves chomping on the chair and table legs... (by the way, don't tell my landlord) and they have become among her favorite chew toys. These again make a characteristic crunching noise when teeth dig into wood, so her naughty habit rarely flies under the radar.

One of Cora's best attributes is her willingness to snuggle. This is of course after we've tired her out so much that she no longer has energy to paw at our faces with her wolverine claws or chomp on our hair, or ears, or faces in general. They're all love bites, at least that's what we keep telling ourselves. As I type on this keyboard, I am glancing down at my pinkened wrist, speckled with red bite marks from the wild baby animal that thinks my hand is a chew toy.

But godamn I love her. I love her so much I dream about her even when she's sleeping in her crate right next to my bed. I think about her during the day and fantasize about the moment I come home and she scampers towards me, shaking in excitement. I wish we had our own secret language so I could tell her exactly how special she is and so she could ask me all of her pressing questions about puppy life.

Things like:

"How come I fall asleep on the couch and wake up in my crate? Is it magic?"
"Why do you pick up my poop? I can never find it the next day."
"Why do some people walk by me and not want to pet me? Am I invisible?"
"What's in that giant ceramic bowl you sit on sometimes? I really want to know."

Maybe one day she will learn the answers to these questions, but for now she is simply my little snuggle muffin.

The lovely lady Cora