falling in love again

In recent entries by farzanadoctor2 Comments

maggie1I grew up without pets, with the exception of a guard dog named Rover when we lived in Zambia (and I was too young to remember him). I didn’t miss them, pine for them, ask my parents for a guinea pig, parrot or dog.

When a previous roommate of mine insisted on getting a cat, I relented, but was convinced I would have no part of it. Within a couple of days I was won over by the kitten. A year later, I added a second kitten to the household, a runt of a litter who reached out of her Humane Society cage to tap me on the arm. Soon, I realized I was allergic to cats after all, and bringing the new one home just added to the dandery air.

When that roommate and I moved on, I agonized over leaving behind my kitty, but my sinuses were glad. For weeks I had dreams in which I’d forgotten to feed her, or left her outside to freeze or perish in various nightmarish ways. I’m happy to say that my old roommate has nurtured both cats into their old ages.

Later, a previous partner insisted we get a dog. Eventually I relented, convinced I wasn’t going to have any part of it. Well, you know the rest. She (the ex-girlfriend) and I split up and unfortunately we (the dog and I) parted ways.

Since then, I’ve thought about getting a dog and never managed it because I didn’t really have the lifestyle to support all the walking and poop-picking-up required of a pooch.  And then I became a self-employed therapist and writer, and found myself at home alot of the time.

So I insisted on getting a dog. My partner, luckily, has relented. I sit here writing with a dog at my feet (she’s just fallen asleep after licking every drop of honey out a kong–yes, that  might sound x-rated to some of you, but I assure you it’s not). She’s been with us for 5 days now.

Maggie is making me wonder about loving an animal, and how this adoration will make it into my writing. People say that having a child changes the way one writes, but I haven’t heard this said of pets. I recall that in Stealing Nasreen, it seemed really important that Nasreen have a cat named Id, who watched over her behaviour. Id was a companion, but also a witness.   I wonder now if Maggie will make her appearance in a future novel, perhaps as a dog who loves a woman whomaggie2 loves her back.

Comments

  1. Hi Farzana,
    Maggie is beautiful. No wonder you have fallen in love again. I have no doubt she will make it into a future novel…Great piece, by the way, about the love we have for our pets, and the huge place they have in our lives…I’m speaking, here, as a woman who loves a cat who loves her back 🙂

  2. Farzana,,
    I got my first dog of my own, in my early thirties, when other people were having kids. While others were raising toddlers, I took my “little Pea” everywhere with me, and in those days, that meant to Campaign For Equal Family Meetings on Church street, to activist meetings for our GLBT causes at The 519, shopping, on the subway, we sat out at the cafe’s in good weather, even The Golden Griddle let me bring her IN, when she was a puppy. Toby’s Good Eats, The Steps of Church Street, This Ain’t The Rosedale Library, The Rainbow Cafe, outside….everyone knew The Pea…a 5 pound yorkshire terrier. Love me, love my dog…she went everywhere with me. My first queer doc…who opened her office on Church street even let her wait with me in the waiting room, while my then-partner had a check-up. She was eventually so tuned in with me, and I with her, that I could walk her off-leash and she’d happily walk right beside me. (I don’t recommend this!) I started slow….walked her off-leash in totally safe areas…where there was no traffic…being certain of her first…before I ever tried it on streets. Then I tried it on streets late at night, when there was no traffic around….in Old Cabbage Town…near Riverdale Farm. When The Pea was just a few months old…I would be at functions with a few lesbians…and many gay men…and she would go from lap to lap to lap…around the circle and greatly welcomed and loved. Those were wonderful days in The Ghetto…which we later re-named The Village…when the whole village raised our pups…and later after we all changed the laws, …our children…together. I suspect it is still the same in the community….your little Maggie will hopefully have lots of aunties and uncles. My little one, became like my child. It is many years later, and The Pea still lives in my heart, her time came, and she dropped her furry little robe and now “she flies on”. And now there are two more little ones. Love bugs. (That go barf in the night.)

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