Popularity by Pet Ownership

I have a confession. The real reason I got a dog was to give my social life a boost.

Well, okay, not really. But Jin certainly knows how to draw people to me. First of all, everyone wants to talk to me, on the phone or in person at social gatherings or at church, because they want to know whether I went and did it, how my dog is doing, whether he’s being less clingy, if he’s eating more regularly yet, if he’s learned how not to jump over the couch to greet me when I leave the house after talking on the phone outside for fifteen minutes.

Then there are the random strangers who come up to me and strike up conversation. These mostly include other dog owners and small children. Conversations with dog owners happen mostly by necessity because our dogs want to become friends or enemies and feel a compulsive need to sniff each other to find out which it’s going to be. Us owners, meanwhile, are forced to stand by awkwardly averting our eyes, and human-to-human conversation is the natural recourse while the dogs are doing their own thing. The funny thing about these exchanges is that we rarely share much about ourselves, but we share everything about our dogs—their names, how long we’ve had them, their breed, where good obedience classes are, the dogs’ little quirks and funny mannerisms. I think that if I run into the same people often enough I might start to learn more about them than just their dogs’ histories, but for now we are all happy to talk about our pets.

The kids are even more fun. Yesterday when I was walking Jin before volleyball, we passed two little girls who gasped in such delight at the dog walking down their street that I couldn’t resist stopping. They scurried over and Jin plopped down in the middle of the street and very patiently let them stroke him and play with his tail and flop his ears back and forth and chatter on and on about their pets and how fish don’t let you hold them because they will die and the names of all their friends and friends’ dogs and the dog who got sick at the Chinese party. It was awfully cute, and put to rest all my worries about Jin’s possible reactions to children.

And finally, there are the actual visitors. I believe Jin must be one of the most popular dogs in the ward, based on the number of visitors he’s had in the week since I first got him. And also because I am only aware of two other dogs in the ward. But Rachel, Maggie, Jason, Jonathan, Jake, and Brian have all made detours specifically to see Jin, and several other people have expressed the interest in meeting my dog but haven’t gotten up the courage to just stop by (I’m going to have to have a dog-welcoming party in the near future). Jin does remarkably well around everyone, and just lets them pet him. And for their part, everyone seems to love Jin. Jonathan loved him just for being a dog, and especially for being a big dog, and threatened to take him away if I turned my back. Jason worked on “mastering the walk”, around the apartment parking lot (and will be pleased to see how far he’s come in the last week). Brian has decided to take it upon himself to teach Jin to fetch and began lesson one today by teaching him to catch the doggie treats (I took Jin to the dog park yesterday and discovered that Jin doesn’t have much interest in chasing tennis balls, but he loves to chase other dogs who are chasing tennis balls). And although Jen and Leilani have not yet met Jin in person, we’ve already talked tentative plans for doggie playdates, so I think we will be dog-owning friends so that our dogs can be friends as well.

Although I realize I draw people to me naturally with my stunning personality and infinite supply of social charisma, I am now certain that I will never lack for friends. Because even if people tire of my stunning personality and infinite supply of social charisma, and even if they go on a diet and no longer need me in their life to supply them with the world’s best homebaked cookies, I will always have my dog to draw them back to me.