The Pomchi and the Blueberry

It's become a regular part of my weekend afternoon. I would settle myself on my favorite chair or couch to watch TV or start working via the laptop. And soon enough, this white little Pomchi dog climbs on my lap, curls itself into a little ball, and falls asleep. I can hear its faint snoring over the hum of my laptop.

We have not always been this close. The Pomchi belongs to my girlfriend and I only knew about it when I visited her place for the first time. It was an energetic little dog who barked and hopped at me to familiarize itself to me. I've been more of a cat person for a long time. It took a few months to get used to her as I spent more time with her and my girlfriend.

Sometimes I would babysit the dog while her owner was out of town. The dog would not accept me as anything more than something to bark at at first. It wouldn't even respond to my call unless it was for food. She was very uncooperative during walks and would drag me around instead of following my lead. The only trick I knew she could perform for me was ignore me when I called for her by name. I was ready to accept myself as the outsider.

But then came the blueberry. I was grabbing some of the bite sized fruit for myself when the dog ran to the fridge and stared at me with puppy dog eyes. I turned to my girlfriend and asked if it was okay to feed her a blueberry. She nodded and I started to pop blueberry into the dog's mouth. But before I could, she started spinning around, sitting, and then dancing. I told her to sit and she did. I asked her to shake and she extended her front paw. She finally calmed down enough for me to give her the little fruit. And things began to look better between us.

She may think I'm a giant blueberry dispenser even though the fridge has been devoid of them for months. But now the dog is warming up to me. It only barks at me when hungry. She fetches her toy for me to throw her when playful. Now she even curls up to nap on my lap whether to bond or because I'm just a warm body. But at the very least we are enemies no more.

And the walks with me, her, and my girlfriend is one of our most precious times together.