Dan and Bwino

I never had a dog growing up.

I was familiar with dogs, I guess.  They skirted in and out of my life.  My mother and father had one when they got married, but he was already old by the time I was born.  Then, when I was five, my mother adopted a large black lab/rottweiler mix that reduced me to helpless, blubbering tears of abject terror.  We kept him for three days before returning him to the pound.  Finally, when I was eight, my cousins moved into the family home and brought their black lab, Shadow.  On the day of our first meeting, Shadow jumped up to greet me and tore a hole in my pink T-shirt.  I avoided him, perhaps unfairly, for the next twelve months.

So when Dan and I got Bwino, I wasn't sure what to do with him.  I would pat him awkwardly and then try to bring him with me to bed to cuddle.  I was flummoxed by fleas ("What sort of strange African creature is this!?") and by potty training.  And what about food?  What do you feed a dog, anyway?  It wasn't like we could go out and buy a big bag of dog food.

We have had Bwino now for exactly three months, and he seems to be healthy and growing.  Our secret?  Revlon Peach Shampoo and a big bowl of scrambled eggs for breakfast!

Here are two pictures of Dan and Bwino, taken exactly three months apart.  Note how both Dan's hair and the dog have grown!

Dan and Bwino on January 1, 2012                                                Dan and Bwino on April 1, 2012