Rhonda brought a dog home just before the COVID shutdown, in March 2020. Here’s a pic of her coming come with Rhonda and the boys from January of 2020:

She was probably a dog who was kept around for breeding. She wasn’t fixed when we got her. She always seemed to be in a kind of survival mode. She was sweet and gentle, and if a dog can like something, I’d say she liked living here. One of her most endearing behaviors was, during COVID, when I was working at my desk, often on Google Meet, coming up to me and putting her front paws on my thigh and looking at me.

The boys named her Chi Chi, but I quickly rechristened her “Tippy” because all we heard during the COVID shutdown was her tipping and tapping up and down the hall. She was always in motion.

We’ve taken in a number of dogs who were hard up for a place to land, and I’m always impressed by how they handle it: with grace and elan. Or like nothing really changed. Food? Check. A pack leader? Check. Let’s do this.

Would that we could all cultivate such equanimity.