By Denise Crane

My daughter and her husband adopted Nugget when he was two. Nugget is not the brightest bulb in our pack. In fact, I call him the “50 First Dates” dog. Do you recall the movie? Man meets a woman who has had a traumatic brain injury from a car accident and can be present in the moment and also remember up to the crash, but not anything else stays in her memory. Date yesterday? Not a memory. Relationship to the man? Not a memory. The man keeps a written story next to her bed after they marry (which she doesn’t remember) to fill in all the gaps for her each day so she isn’t afraid. She just can’t remember things. Nugget is like that. 

Nugget has some other quirky traits that make him unique. One is that he has a super high-pitched yap that is out of proportion for his tiny body. It is piercing and will set your teeth on edge. People notice it right away. When he first joined the family, he had a tough time walking with a leash on. He gets so excited to be out that he would sort of just bounce around joyfully as if unable to figure out how to go in every direction at once. Unfortunately, he is also a biter. Since he can’t remember he isn’t supposed to bite, he can’t be trusted not to. He bit a dear friend of ours who had to go have the bite seen by a doctor. We do our best to keep him away from strangers unattended. Also, frequently when Nugget visits our house, he forgets that he is house trained and rushes into our house and commences to mark territory. So before he has a chance to do that, we put him in the backyard or in his crate. Oh, and Nugget loves to chew things. He also can’t remember he is not supposed to do that. Throw pillows at our house and his own house all testify to his love of chewing.

Best of all, Nugget loves to cuddle and be scratched. The joy that little dog experiences when he gets cuddled and scratched will melt your heart. It’s like he can’t get close enough to you and he looks at you like you are giving him the best gift in the world. And that is how he tricked our neighbor.

We have had the good fortune to have neighbors with whom we can share dog sitting duties when we need or want to go out of town. On this particular trip, we had three dogs in our pack staying at our house and our neighbor graciously agreed to watch all three. They adore her, and she absolutely loves dogs. We left her written instructions about who eats when and what amount and what snacks were available and a bold print warning that Nugget must be placed in his crate any time the dogs are left alone because he cannot be trusted. 

Did I mention my husband and I had recently gotten a new recliner?

Apparently all was well for most of the week. Our three dogs played with her dog, She took turns walking them together (no small feat to walk three dogs) and separately (to include her own dog because four is too many) and they established a good rhythm. No accidents. Lots of cuddles.

Until the night before we came home.

On that night, my neighbor came over to feed the dogs and let them out before she and her husband went out to dinner. They were going straight to the restaurant and straight back. By the end of the week, Nugget had been so good and so joyful and so cuddly that my neighbor didn’t want to put him in his crate.

I bet you know where this is going. Yep—nailed it! They went to dinner, Nugget chewed holes in both arms of the new recliner. Our neighbor was horrified and mortified. 

The thing is, we get why she didn’t crate him. That dog just lives for cuddles. The joy that he exudes when he is nestled up next to his humans is too contagious. See, in spite of all his not remembering and yapping, biting, and chewing, Nugget teaches us all about joy. Recliners can be replaced (though we probably won’t do that until Nugget passes beyond this pack). We have learned good skills for managing and preventing the other things. But his joy? That is a gift that he brings with him wherever he goes.

Can you remember to pack your joy today?