My Day With “Squish”

Squish checking out my car

One of our family motto's is "What could possibly go wrong?" This has led to generations of family members never really thinking things through and being cheerily optimistic about any new endeavor.

I arrived at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter on a Sunday morning, fully confident that I could take one of the shelter dogs to an adoption event at St John's church in Santa Fe.

To more thoroughly set the stage, we have older dogs at home. Toby, our Great Pyrenees, is about five, and Maisie, our Chihuahua-terrier dog-in-charge, is probably eight or so. They have their routines, which involve a lot of sleeping during the day. A calm household is occasionally interrupted by Toby's indignant barking at UPS delivery folks or coyotes.

I walked into the Shelter to the front desk, explained why I was there, and was quickly assigned a dog—in this case, a three-month-old puppy, weirdly named, I thought, "Squish." Upon hearing that I was taking Squish for the day, everyone in the front chimed in about how much they loved him. Then, with a bit of foreshadowing, one of the staff members gave me a rubber ring toy and whispered, "You'll need this."

I took the toy and walked back to the kennel where Squish was staying. Opening the door, I immediately understood the name. He was a tawny puppy, about fifteen pounds, with a jowly face that you just wanted to squish. Like most dogs in the adoption area, he was friendly. He came up to me and jumped up. His tail was wagging hard. He was excited and ready to be with a human. I thought, this will be easy!

He was great on a leash as we walked out to my car. He wasn't thrilled to get in the car, so I lifted him in, closed the backseat door, and got in the driver's seat.

I tossed him the rubber toy, put on my seatbelt, started the car, and thought, "What could possibly go wrong?"

I had forgotten a lifetime of lessons of living with puppies. As Squish started running around the back of our station wagon, I had this vague memory take shape of our late Bernese Mountain dogs when they were three months old. Then, it was dangerous to go in the hallway when they were being "playful" because they would chase you down. Cornered, they would double-team you, take your book, soccer ball, or whatever you had in your hands, and dare you to chase them.

All this came rushing back as, through the rearview mirror, I watched Squish attack the paper temporary license sticker attached to the rear window and shred it. I thought, "This is why dog guardians crate their puppies in the car!

I was trying to survive the drive and occasionally glance back as Squish went after the trash bag, the seatbelts, and finding the gap between the two front seats, me. He stuck his head between the seats as if to ask, "Do you love me yet?"

Puppy energy.

We arrived at the church more or less intact. Squish barked for the first time, which was endearing, but he didn't want to get out of the car. So I lifted him out, got the leash sorted, and headed towards the yard. There were a dozen or so other shelter dogs and their handlers and individuals (future dog guardians?) milling around, saying hello.

The dogs were doing their best to be adoptable, and Squish was determined to meet all of them, plus all the humans and even the couple of trees—boundless energy.

Every once in a while, he'd sit down on a blanket or the grass and, I think, just contemplate what a dog's life could be: lots of humans, dogs, real grass, and plenty of treats and water.

For Squish, there were lots of lookers but no takers. We saw one dog being walked by a twelve-year-old boy, which looked like love at first sight.

At about 2:00 p.m., the peak crowd had drifted off, so I decided it was time to head back. Squish, again, did not want to get in the car. I lifted him in; he barked a couple of times. I started the car, turned on the air conditioning, and we headed back. Squish, exhausted by all the activity, fell deep asleep. I wondered if he was dreaming about lots of humans, dogs, and real grass.

Late breaking news! Squish was adopted!