I think every family should get a pet. I can think of a million reasons but the most important one is the memories they leave us with,
which last generations.
I grew up with stories of pets nice and nasty, including a horrifying one of Devil who was my grandfather's guard dog before I was born.
I always thought why would someone name their dog Devil but maybe there was a good reason. Then we had the pets at my parents' place.
Johnny, my favorite dog who would run like the wind and could outrun Tiger a thoroughbred German Shepard twice his size. I also had my fair share of fish, hermit crabs and caterpillars which I thought would
make great pets only to learn otherwise at some point.
Then it was time to get a pet for our son. We had been wanting to have one for some time and the summer before our son moved to fifth grade seemed to be a great time to get one.
Promises were made that he will walk him and pick after him. Never, ever believe when your child says that. But get a pet anyway. Let them make the promises but keep the expectations in the right place.
The most important decision before getting our dog was to decide on a name. We were absolutely sure that it has to be linked to a place we like or somehow linked to the Atlas.
We were getting a Labradoodle which is a mix of a Labrador and a Poodle. And where does the Labrador breed trace its ancestry to? Of course, the Labrador Sea. And where is that? Hmmm… it is near Norway.
Or so I was sure of even though the other family members were only kind of going with it but no one looked up an Atlas. And what is the capital of Norway? It is Oslo! Perfect that is what we will call our dog. And we got him.
It was only a few months later when we were narrating this story to a friend of ours, who could only smile at my self-assured story telling but eventually burst out laughing and asked me to get an Atlas.
But it was too late and we like this story more now.
Oslo came and took over our lives with his exuberant energy. The day we were bringing him home we stayed overnight at a hotel and we were hit by a big thunderstorm.
Late in the night I had to take him out to do his business and I was apprehensive how he will deal with the thunder. And one struck as soon we stepped out in the open.
Oslo just looked up and twisted his nose at the next one. I knew he was special.
We realized very soon that he will never learn to walk on a leash. Or maybe we never had the heart to not let him run free and chase the abundant deer,
rabbit and squirrels in the surrounding forests, or jump into the rain puddles and get mud all over, or go exploring into trails and come back covered in brambles that would take forever to clean.
The first and one of the only few words he learned was “walkie”. Utter that word and he would go berserk running to the back door, even if you say that to him at two in the night.
There is nothing more he wants from life other than running outside in the forest or swimming in the pool. He soon learnt that if anyone in the family puts on a running short means he is going “walkie”.
And he knows the difference between a running short and a regular one. He has the heart of a horse, regularly running 10K distances with me during which he probably runs fifteen because of the back and forth he does and the innumerable deer chases.
We could not have asked more from you Oslo! With all your eccentricities, you are perfect for us!
