Sprinkles is a 12 week old pup that was abandoned outside a jail in Puerto Rico when she was just a few weeks old. 

The amazing people at Safe and Sound Satos rescued her, cleaned her up, and flew her to NYC while awaiting adoption. But they didn’t have anywhere for her to stay while she waited. 

I’m a life-long dog lover. And the feeling is mutual. Dogs know I love them, and they love me back. The first time I meet a new dog, he or she usually just rolls over and lets me rub their belly. They know I am a friend of the canine. 

I’ve been wanting to get a dog of my own for forever. But my lifestyle is the complete opposite of one that works for having a dog. I work all the time. I’m out most nights. I travel unpredictably. I live in a small apartment on the 17th floor of a glass tower building, surrounded by concrete sidewalks.

But I’ve wanted to have a dog for so long that when some friends at work told me about Sprinkles, I looked at my schedule and saw that I’d be in town for 10 whole days in a row, a rare break in my travel schedule. I agreed to take her in until she finds a home. 

I imagined that I’d need to change my lifestyle a bit to add her to the mix.

That was a bit of an understatement. 

Sprinkles has been here 48 hours.

I don’t eat. I don’t sleep. I no longer shower. I only leave the house to walk Sprinkles. I may have to quit my job soon. I just don’t see any way to be a full time caregiver to Sprinkles and also work.

It used to be, the first thing I did when I woke up was to read my email in bed, look at my schedule, prepare myself for the day.

Now, when I wake up, I put on pants and shoes like the house is on fire and try to put Sprinkles harness on before she pees on the carpet. I’m batting .500 so far. 

My building has a small courtyard. It’s actually terrible. It’s just some bricks and dirt patches. The only thing it’s good for is to let a dog relieve themselves. So on the first day, I took Sprinkles to the courtyard. She peed. I got yelled at by the building manager, saying that no dogs are allowed in the courtyard. What kind of a building allows dogs but doesn’t let them pee in the only outdoor space? 

Sprinkles  #1 skill is looking cute. She does this tremendously well. All-star level. People on the street stop me ALL the time to ask about her. “What kind of a dog is she?” Nobody knows. Then they ask the obvious follow up: “What’s her name?” When I say “Sprinkles” they look at her cute face for a second and laugh… then they look up at me, and get really weirded out. By the time I start explaining the whole rescue thing, they’ve already got me pegged as a pedo. 

(I could change her name, but that doesn’t feel fair to her forever owner, who should get that privilege. That said, she has no idea what her name is so I’m probably overthinking that.)

 

To be honest, her #1 skill is also her only skill. 

I can’t walk her. She stops ever 30 seconds. 

I take her for long walks anyway, because they say that I should tire her out. I’m tired, she’s fine. At the end of the walk, we come back upstairs in time for her to pee on the carpet. 

I Google a lot of puppy articles. Facebook is now serving me exclusively dog ads. People say that when you first get a puppy, you shouldn’t leave her right away, because she needs to feel safe. But they also say you need to leave her so she doesn’t develop separation anxiety. (I’ve found that if you google enough, you can find contradictory advice on pretty much every topic.)

So I stayed with her a lot for the first 48 hours, but this morning I set up a dog playpen with a gate for her to stay in if and when I’m ever able to leave. I tried it out for 10 minutes this morning. To say that she was unhappy would be like saying that I’m unhappy with the Red Sox start to the season. She cried and cried. I stood outside the door watching on video and listening through the door. The first test did not go well. 

On the plus side, I might not have to worry about living on the 17th floor anymore, because my building is likely to evict me. 

Sprinkles is a puppy, so of course her hobbies are playing and sleeping. She can be a little bite-y, as google says all puppies are. Sometimes I try to rationalize with her. “Sprinkles- that shit might fly on the mean streets of Puerto Rico, but you have to get it together up here.” She doesn’t seem to get it. 

I know it’s a cliche, but Sprinkles loves to pee. (Maybe THAT’S where the name comes from?) 

When we can’t make it outside, which is most of the time because she pees every hour so we’d basically have to live outside, I try to get her to pee on the pee pads. I even bought one of the ones that looks like grass. 

I’ve read that I’m supposed to celebrate when she pees on the pad, and give her some treats. I celebrate. I celebrate like she just hit a grand slam in the World Series. Sprinkles is nonplussed.

If she happens to be in the area of a pee pad, she might grant it the gift of her urine. Most of the time, though, wherever she happens to be standing when the mood strikes is preferable. 

The first time I read this story on the inventor of wee wee pads listing their home for $39.9m, it didn’t make sense to me. 

https://ny.curbed.com/2019/4/9/18303492/upper-east-side-manhattan-apartment-for-sale

That’s a lot of money for anyone, but for dog pee pads? The money had to come from somewhere else. 

48 hours into watching Sprinkles, I get it entirely. Further, I’ve invested all of my money in companies that make rags and those small plastic bags that I use to pick up her poop. 

Wish me luck!