Dog Eat Dog

Since we moved to Brooklyn, Jen and I have been spending every bit of energy on setting up our apartment (which is still a work in progress), getting acclimated to our new ‘hood (which we love), or hanging out with friends or family who have been visiting pretty much every weekend.  Our friends Matty and Chelsea were in town from PA and joined us for our first dinner out in Park Slope.  Jen’s parents got to see the new place and had the pleasure of taking us through the ghetto to Target (they had a car!) to get some stuff for the apartment.   Then Jen’s sister, Jackie, stayed with us for a few days. She broke in our “guest bedroom” which basically consisted of a queen-sized air mattress and nothing else.  We love having visitors, but the timing of everything amounted to a challenging few weeks. Not to mention, I’m still getting used to my new job and full time status and Jen has been training for her new offsite job at Barclays that she starts tomorrow.  We’ve been more than a little stressed (Jen has anyway).

This past weekend was kind of the first that we felt we had time to make any plans. Friday night we went out with some of my old classmates to a send off party for Hannah, who is moving back to her hometown in Alabama. She said goodbye in true Hannah fashion – with fried food and beers. As one of the only other Southerners in the program and a member of my Board exam study trio (pictured Friday night), she will be missed in NYC. Good luck Hannah!

Saturday Jen set up a puppy play date in Central Park with her friends Framil and Lewis and their new pup Max.  Framil and Lewis love Pup (she’s the reason they got a dog) so they really wanted the two to meet. By now we have accepted the fact that Pup will never be a play-date-loving, dog park-friendly canine. At best she just tolerates other dogs and never hesitates to use yips and nips to keep the other animal under (her) control.

Saturday started off really well. Both dogs walked nicely together down the cobble stone path along Central Park West to the entrance. We set up our blankets on the lawn just steps away from one of the iconic, intricate bridges that are throughout Central Park. For a puppy, Max was calm and respectful of Pup’s much needed personal space.  Of course both dogs got jealous if the other got attention but, for the most part, things were going well…until we took out the food.  It didn’t take long for both dogs to have their eye on a piece of salami and there was a lot of growling and showing of their teeth. Lewis reached over to push them apart which caused some kind of “let me at ‘im” reaction and they went off on each other. None of us saw any real biting, but the product of their fight was Pup letting out a yelp and Max walking away with an eye full of blood.  Pup was fine, just a little shocked and Max’s bleeding turned out to be a minor scratch that healed after about a minute.  They soon made up with each other with a few sheepish sniffs.  Pup was a little stand-offish towards Lewis afterwards and he’s still torn up about the idea of her not loving him anymore. The moral of the story is: Food causes dog fights. And also Pups a b*tch, but we love her anyway.