Well, Kaalakaandi is not coming out in America. Which means I have yet another empty weekend. Empty Friday night, and empty Saturday since I’m not rushing around to write a review. Since you aren’t getting reviews, I thought I might as well catch you up on the other things I have been doing.
Maybe I should name my dog “Padmavati”, because that’s the reason I can get a dog, Padmavati ruining the winter release schedule and opening up all my weekends.
(Now I am picturing this song, but with a bunch of dogs running around in circles instead of dancers. So cute!)
Anyway, for the past 3 weekends I have been visiting humane shelters looking for a dog. Which is a depressing and disturbing process. And increasingly feels like I am visiting a brothel and picking out a lady of the evening. Especially when they ask me “is there anyone you want some one on one time with in the ‘companionship room’?”
What’s really horrible is when you actually go into the companionship room with some poor terrified dog. And the volunteer keeps telling them “be nice to the lady! Be nice! Be friendly!” while the dog is literally shaking in fear. And then they hand me treats and are all “she warms right up, don’t worry, just give her treats and she will come right to you.” And the whole time all I can think of is this:
But I am getting close! Last night I spent a long time in a “companionship” room with this terrified dog who let me pet her, but was still too scared to look me in the eye.
And most of all, I really liked that particular shelter. They didn’t yell at their dogs to “be nice, be nice! Make the lady like you!”, and the cages were nice and big so I didn’t feel like I was condemning the dog to a life of misery by not taking her home. And most of all, they called it a “meet and greet room”, which is maybe the least disturbing possible name, but still pretty disturbing. So I am feeling optimistic!
(I mean, it was still a little brothel-y, but more the high class kind of brothel where they don’t beat the girls)
And that optimistic feeling is letting me finally feel like spending some of my Padmavati free time on other things that I’ve been meaning to do. Like, finally taking apart the elegant table settings I did for Christmas dinner. The dishes were all washed, but the tablecloth and cloth napkins and stuff I didn’t bother with until just now, they’ve been sitting on the table for the past three weeks. And candles, SO MANY CANDLES (my Mom really likes candles on the table).
(It looked like this, but more candles. Okay, maybe not more, but a lot)
And final chore, laundry! So much laundry! It just kept building and building until it was out of control. I had to go to a laundromat and use two of the big big triple load washers. And had to take two trips up and down the stairs to carry it all. But thank goodness, that is now done too and all my clothes are so cleeeeeeeeaaaaan. It’s so nice!
(Not as nice as if a door to door salesperson had come to help me wash them, but still nice! And the scene I am referring to starts at 9 minutes in, just in case the embed didn’t work)
But most importantly, my hair is brushed! And washed and braided. It’s been out of control the past few days, but I washed it last night and stayed up late to let it air dry, and then spent 40 minutes brushing it this morning, and now the top of my head is sooooooooo happy. It’s almost worth there being no good Hindi movie playing for the past 2 weeks!
(One of my favorite realistic touches of this movie is that while Harshaali is at the nice combined family household in Delhi with at least two grown women to fuss over her, her hair is washed and brushed and braided within an inch of its life. But when she is traveling alone with two guys, not so much)
Anyway, that’s what’s been up with me, so you can see at least I’m not wasting this no-new-movies period. Even if there isn’t as much blog content for us to talk about.
dontcallitbollywood 
Well, I have never visited a brothel…. ha ha ha. But that little dog looks quite sweet – not too big, not too teeny-weeny.
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I thought she was pretty sweet too! Only downside is that she is kind of young, and she would have to be alone all day, which can really mess up young dogs (they get sad, they try to hurt themselves, they try to hurt my apartment, I get mad at them, it’s a vicious cycle).
On Sat, Jan 13, 2018 at 7:15 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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A more senior small dog might be a better option. One that had been with an elderly person for a while before they could no longer take care of it.
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That’s what I was thinking. This little sweetheart is still at the shelter, I’ll go back next Friday and see if she is still there, or if someone new and a bit older has arrived.
The great difficulty is in getting a dog that is both under 25 pounds, and NOT a Chihuahua, so for this has been as close as I have been able to come.
On Sat, Jan 13, 2018 at 7:38 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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oh that is so sad..the dog really looks scared..i wonder what happened to it to get so scared?
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Seems like she is a teenage mother who was abandoned by her family. Already had a litter of puppies and only a year old, but housetrained which means at some point she had a family. So most likely thrown out after she got pregnant. Plus of course she just lost all her puppies since they were adopted out before her. Shelter dogs all have such sad stories!
On Sun, Jan 14, 2018 at 11:46 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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oh no ..that is so bad..why do these people even adopt/buy animals if they’l end up throwing them out..some people are so cruel..
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And then the flipside is me, who is treating this whole adoption process like the most serious thing in the world because once I commit to a dog, I never ever ever want to let it down. Which means I am just never adopting.
On Tue, Jan 16, 2018 at 11:47 AM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Hi. It is so hard. I have to admit that we went to SPCA meet and greets at pet supply stores in the area because I couldn’t bear to go to a shelter.
I want to put in a word for getting a 1 year old. That is the age that we adopted our dog, Bunny, and it worked out really well. Most of the puppy like behavior–chewing on everything, peeing on everything–is over by then. Bunny did grow a bit more than I thought she would even after we got her–but I was probably in denial because I wanted her so much! Can this little one grow a bit and still be less than 25 pounds?
We crate trained Bunny–for the first year she was with us, we put her in her comfy crate–with t-shirts that smelled like us–when we were gone during the day. Usually not more than 6 hours at a time though, as my husband’s and my work hours didn’t quite overlap, thankfully. She still goes into her crate, in our bedroom, to nap, or if she gets scared by the vacuum or something, though we leave the door open, 7 years later.
Assuming you’ll be gone for longer than that, can you afford a dog-walking service? No idea how much that costs. Whatever doggy you get will be the one you’re supposed to have. So excited for you!
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Such helpful info! Especially about adopting a 1 year old. I have a good friend who just got a puppy, and I was worried about the kind of behavior where they can literally harm themselves if left alone, eating things they can’t digest and so on. But it sounds like that is less of a concern by this age.
The 25 Lbs is less of an issue than the possibility of personality changes. The landlord always says 25 lbs, but it’s not like he’s going to show up at my door with a scale. But neighbors complaining will get his attention. In terms of getting more aggressive, especially barking, did your dog change much between 1 year old and now?
I can afford dogwalking, but would prefer not to, just because it would be nice to save the money. My parents’ dog did fine with 8 hour stretches when I dog sat her, but then she was also a mature dog, around 10. I’m thinking about starting with the crate while I am gone for shorter stretches and seeing how she does alone for longer stretches. I can experiment a little.
On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 1:35 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Yep, every dog is going to be different. Bunny didn’t go through personality changes except becoming a 45 lb lap dog. She was trusting of us, and crazy about food, and playful but not toooo wired, from day 1. Unfortunately she was abused as a puppy, so she remains wary of strangers, especially coming into the house, and has always been a barker. We lived in a townhouse the first couple of years we had her, and our neighbors were not thrilled sometimes. But she wouldn’t bark much in her crate while we were gone–she barked more at night if there was an unusual sound, and she thought a boogie man was coming to get us all.
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See, the “wary of strangers” kind of dog would be perfect for me! I have friends come over once a week or every other week, but that’s it for strangers. And if they come in and sit down and stuff, they aren’t “strangers” any more, you know? At least, for most dogs. Otherwise, it’s just the one person and a whole apartment to herself. That is assuming she doesn’t decide the whole building is her territory, in which case it would be constant barking with people going in and out of entrance doors. Oh well, no way to know that without taking the leap.
I also need to ask about the return policy, which is a question shelters never want to hear, but it’s important if my landlord kicks her out after 30 days for barking incessantly or she just cannot handle a houshold without someone at home all day. I had a friend who brought a dog home and after 2 weeks knew it was never going to work, the dog was miserable and they were miserable, and the shelter was wonderful about it and took the dog back and helped them find a better fit, which is what you want to happen in that situation.
On Mon, Jan 15, 2018 at 2:50 PM, dontcallitbollywood wrote:
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Same–we don’t have people over that much either. A couple of years before we got Bunny, we adopted a retired racing greyhound that we ended up needing to return to the rescue group. Sally was a beautiful 4 or 5 year old, who they thought was fine with kids–our daughter was still a toddler. Turns out the poor dog was completely freaked out by our daughter. Racing greyhounds are raised in kennels, so they really aren’t around kids. One night our daughter put her face too close to the dog’s face, and the dog nipped her on her forehead. The rescue was very apologetic, they took Sally back, we were all sad. And Sally ended up in a house with a huge fenced-in yard with 3 other greyhounds–the folks who had fostered her liked her so much they took her back. So, happy endings all round. But we’re still a little sad about Sally.
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