Monday, June 07, 2004
Finding Cosmo
In honor of my phenomenally wonderful dog, who’s laid-up and gimpy with an infected knee, I am harnessing the positive power of the internet to get him feeling better by publishing, starting today, a ten-part series about how COSMO KICKS ASS. Without further ado, then, let us begin with:
The First Adventure of Cosmo, the Mostly Good Dog:
Finding Cosmo
We had wanted a dog for along time. We already had two cats, but a dog is different. We’d both grown up with dogs. The cats were great, but without a dog, it felt like something was missing.
We knew it would be had to find the right dog. We weren’t sure what the ‘right dog’ even was. But we knew a few things. He - or she - would have short hair, would not need too much exercise, and I wouldn’t have to bend over to pat his - or her - head. And his name - even if it was a her - would be Cosmo. We didn’t know anybody named Cosmo and we thought it was about time that we did.
One day Kelly called me from her volunteer gig at the SPCA. There was a dog she wanted me to meet. I don’t recall the exact conversation but the gist of it was along these lines: “He’s very sweet and cheerful. He only has a little stump of a tail but he wags it so hard his whole body wiggles. They don’t know what he is for sure but they’re calling him a mastiff mix. He’s almost a year old, 75 pounds. He started at the City shelter, but he didn’t get adopted in time and they are supposed to get rid of him. But they can’t – he’s too good a dog. The SPCA isn’t supposed to have dogs like him around because he’s big and scary, but everybody here went over there to check him out and fell in love with him – the president, the hearing dog trainer, the training instructor, everybody. One behaviorist let him take a cookie out of her mouth – she doesn’t do that with most shelter dogs. But this one’s really a sweetheart. He just looks like trouble.”
“Will I have to bend over to pet his head?”
“See for yourself. He’s a big boy, though.”
This all sounded good to me so I agreed to meet the dog. I went to the shelter and Kelly took me to some offices where she had me wait while she brought him up.
“This is Bosco,” she told me as the huge brown head burst into the room. The body wasn’t small but the head was just enormous. His jaw was wide and heavy and his mouth was broad and deep, and his enormous pink tongue was flopping all over his wobbly black jowls. His smile seemed to wrap all the way around his head.
“Bosco, huh?,” I asked as the massive head and the strong energetic body to which it was attached started brushing up against my leg. He was trying to sniff me, lick my hand, and rub his shoulder on me all at once. Kelly flicked his leash and told me, “He’ll need some training, of course, and he’s a little tense around other dogs. Also, if we want him, we have to agree that they can visit us for 18 months, unannounced, to make sure we’re treating him right.”
His eyes were warm and friendly, and his coat had the wonderful brindle pattern of polished wood. I reached down to pet his head as he sat on his still-wagging hindquarters next to me. Without bending, I easily petted his head and scratched behind his ears. “I have one condition,” I told Kelly. “We change the name to Cosmo.”
“Oh, that’s a given,” she replied. We had found our dog. He seemed like a good one.
