Travels with a Chiweenie

When you travel with a pet in a city apartment, you automatically find yourself editing your day around a potty schedule.

I am thrilled to announce…

We have successfully learned how to potty on a leash, AND the rain has stopped in NYC and our Central Park grassy patch is now a known home for all things potty.  I am also proud to announce. Frida already knows her way home. Seems appropriate she would.

She demands home wherever she is – it is her dog spirit.

This morning after business was complete, I thought I would take her on a little walk for fun. 

We got five minutes down the path and she stopped and looked up at me.

I thought, well, she might be holding an extra “email” for someone and needed to pee again.

In Central Park, between 6am and 9am – in certain areas, you can have your dog off leash.

I never let Frida off leash…well at least not in a large public arena.

But, since breaking the law our first night in town…I was feeling brave with her.

She was perfect, didn’t run, didn’t bark, listened when I said “wait.”

But she didn’t potty.

She just started to make her way back to where we entered the park.

“Do you want to go home?”

A scamper began…

“WAIT!”

She did, and on the leash she went and we headed home – I let her lead.

She knew where to stop at Central Park West, she knew where our brownstone was located, right in time for a neighbor walking in with Dunken Donuts.  I am wondering if she knew more than I and was hoping for a hook up.

Treats for “Good Potty,” in her new fifty dollar dog bed and off to the shower I went to start my day of adventure at the Guggenheim.

I had purchased a timed ticket for today for a closing show this week.

It was 10:20am.

The shower in the apartment has the most amazing water pressure I have ever felt!

The first day, I had a sense memory of a movie or TV scene where the character was thrown from the tub.

It was that intense.

I have since Googled it – shower pressure scene – yup – Kramer in Seinfeld.

So, with that knowledge, you won’t be surprised – when 10:50 rolled around and my phone was blown up with messages about a certain earthquake in NYC – I had no idea.

Frida didn’t feel it either – she was sound asleep on the bed when I came out to an emergency alert on my phone. 

You know the phone that I forgot on Monday?

Jeepers Peepers!

My day off work, a timed-ticket for the Guggenheim and now we are on alert…for an EARTHQUAKE?!

Possible lockdown was being discussed.

I blame Frida.

She had rocked the universe with crazy life skills.

I marked myself “safe,” on Facebook and headed out the door, after one more potty effort.

As I sit here at a local spot, having very good calamari, but now thinking I should have had the baked ricotta…I am struck with how much this already feels like home. 

Just like Frida – I knew my way across the park (btw, best place to be if you are to find yourself in an aftershock), engaged with a provocative show call Going Dark – a collection of work over the last three decades concerning the invisibility of certain groups of people. The Guggenheim is one of my favorite places to experience art – the way you have to traverse the rotunda and then forced to revisit the exhibit from a completely different perspective back to the ground, and it felt like home, like I belonged.  (Note: headphones are encouraged if you are easily distracted by noise – Frank Loyd Wright didn’t care about acoustics in his design – so it is noisy…I don’t mind, I come prepared).

OH OH OH…AND there was a woman there with an adorable Pomeranian….however, there is no service dog that is a Pomeranian.

I asked docent.

“I noticed a dog below…you guys are not dog friendly are you?”

“Nope…but…”

I stopped her…”yeah…but you can ask for proof about a service dog can you?  That is a HIPAA violation.”

She smiled and said, “yeah…there was a lawsuit.  I wouldn’t say we are dog friendly, but we can’t do much about it.”

HHMMP…I could have brought Frida.

But the thing is – why would I subject her to all of that energy, and also distract myself from engaging with the art?

She is happy at home.

I left the Project Runway channel on the T.V.

In fact, when I got home – she was still in the bed – didn’t even care that I came back…until I said, “Do you want to go potty?”

Traveling with a chiweenie is always being home.

Traveling with a chiweenie is always keeping it real…even during an earthquake.

Traveling with a chiweenie has taxed me to the core, and at the same time, filled my soul beyond words.

NYC, a city filled with so many experiences, and I want to soak all of them up.  But the best part of this adventure…is knowing when I get home, she will want a potty break and then snuggle in for tomorrow’s next event.

Here’s to tomorrow.

Here’s to being brave.

Here’s to all of you.