Adventures in Single Parenting

Such a blurry picture, but I love this one of Link and me.

So before I start this post, I know staying home alone with my 5 month old puppy for a month is nothing akin to the struggles of single parenting, I'm really just joking, when I say that. But being alone with Link for the last couple of weeks has been an adventure overall. 

Adam had always planned to go to Wisconsin for a week or two, and he even had the flight booked for months now. But when his grandmother passed, he changed his flight to spend more time with his family, extending his trip by two weeks. Luckily, I saw him last weekend for the services, but  I feel we are living Elton John's song "Leaving on a Jet Plane" right now. 

The first night I had gotten home from work after Adam had left, I realized we were out of dog food. You think Adam would have told me this fun fact before I left work, so I could  have picked some up on my way home from work. But he did not. So I scoured the cabinets, and ended up feeding him Captain Crunch #parentingfail. But he did not puke, and since we never give him table scraps, that bowl of cereal officially made me the cool parent #parentingwin.

His not puking was a plus, because I don't deal well with puke at all. The week earlier we I taken Link to get neutered before work, and he got so nervous, that he puked all over the backseat. Making me late for work, since i had to go home and clean it up. Well, Adam cleaned it up, because like I said, I DON'T DO PUKE. So if he had puked from the Captain Crunch, I would have had to deal with it all by myself. The tragedy! 

When I told my boss why I would be late to work after that ill-fated trip to the vet, she said my baby was "sensitive." She is right. He is smart but not brave, and he has anxiety like his Mama!

The biggest issue with Adam's extended trip was deciding what to do with our little Linky during the day.  Adam works from home, so he has been staying with him everyday, and depending on the day of the week I'm gone 9-10 hours for work. We had thought about leaving him outside during the day, but he is an occasional digger. So we thought given that amount of time alone, he could have dug his way halfway to China. And gating him up for that long inside just seemed cruel.

So even though it would cost us more money than we wanted to spend, we decided to put Link in doggie daycare. 

My coworkers have given me such (funny) grief over me putting him in daycare. Teasing me that I treat my dog like a child, and that I'm obsessed with him. Which I totally am. But how could I not be obsessed with such a cute pooch?

The first time I dropped him off at the daycare, he cried. He didn't want to leave his mama. It broke my little heart. 

When he was picked up from daycare, they said he had done well, but that he was scared of the other dogs. They wanted to know if it was OK if they socialized him! Apparently, they have a group of puppies at the center, that come everyday, known as the Puppy Pack.

I said yes. I was so excited for Link! I felt like he had been asked to rush a fraternity. He was in demand! Heck, one of the members of the pack is the veterinarian's puppy! I knew my Linky would be well-connected if he fell in what that in-crowd.

So yes, Link is now running with the puppy pack. They are all bigger puppies than him, and his best friend is a great dane pup named Penelope. The say he is doing so well with the other puppies, and the workers all seem to adore him up there.

He makes his Mama proud.

He no longer cries in the morning when I leave him. In fact, he follows me around all morning while I get ready, looking at me like, "Is it time yet? Is it time yet?" He wiggles like crazy when I pull out the leash, and he hops right into the car. When we get to the clinic, he doesn't even glance back at me anymore. He is just like, "I'm going to go play with my friends now, I'll catch you on the flip side." My baby is so grown up.

But Adam needs to come home soon, because being a single working mother is tough stuff!

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