How to own a dog for the first time!

This morning, at 3AM, I woke up to Hera on my bed — patiently waiting for me to give some sort of attention.

If you knew Hera (like you will soon), you'd know that it must have been very urgent for her to climb my bed, sit so close to me, and pant like hell is on fire. I didn't respond for like 30 minutes (just because) and this girl didn't move an inch. I took a peek, and she was in her "I don't give a fuck" posture. When I sat up, she took a long look at me which I took to mean, "what took you so fucking long?"

As usual, the first order of business when I wake up is to take her to go potty. She ran to the door faster than usual as I stood up. I opened the door, and she didn't even wait to be told to go out. Turned out she really really wanted to pee and poop, and she couldn't wait till our usual time.

I named her Hera because she definitely didn't look like a Hela when I first saw her. Her full name is Hera Alucard Philemon. The Alucard is for me at this point.

Hera is the queen of Olympus and the Olympian gods, and she's the jealous, petty wife of Zeus. While my Hera is definitely not a wife (she's my baby girl), she is definitely both jealous and petty. She's a German Shepherd x Husky mix, and I wanted to start with a pure Husky as my first dog.

It's very easy to forget she's a Husky mix because she looks predominantly German Shepherd (GSD). So to reduce the intros, I usually just tell people who ask that she's a GSD. Even though she doesn't act like an 8-month old GSD, it doesn't bother me at all because she's still my baby. But learning about Husky x GSD hybrids recently showed that it is possible to look GSD and act Husky.

This means there is a high chance that I have a Husky in a GSD coat. This explained a lot of behaviours. The blatant disregard once she's off leash and "mistakenly" out on the streets. Or the constant howling when she's left alone leashed to a pole. Or the deep fear of loud sounds, people, and vehicles. Or her being friendly with every Tom, Dick, and Harry. Or her pettiness with food (more on this later).

The first week I got her was the toughest one. She was just 12 weeks. The first rude awakening was the amount of times she needed to pee per day. It was a lot. I had close to 8 alarms reminding me to take her out to pee. It was potty time before and after she ate, before and after she went to bed, before and after she drank water, before and after she's played rough. It was potty time every 3 - 4 hours.

And even when you get it all right, you still have to clean her pee (and her body) from her crate … sometimes at night. It is nowhere near the pains of taking care of a newborn child, but I learned to develop some empathy for new mothers around the world.

The next rude awakening was learning how petty she is with food. After her first vaccination, she flat out refused to eat her current meal. She went full days without eating because it wasn't what she wanted.

At this point, I should admit I spoil her a lot.

So, I changed her food, and then I changed it again. She resumed eating. Right now, she's being petty again, but differently. Now, she wouldn't eat if some form of soup/human food wasn't spread all over her dry food. I do not even want to think about what that means, but yeah, gbegiri and ewedu typically does the trick. She's on supplements, so it also means that sometimes the hunger wins over the pettiness.

She's got 3 doctors being the star girl that she is, and they all say she's a spoiled brat. I, personally, consider it a compliment instead of the criticism that it is. As a younger puppy, she was a peach at the vet's; now, she's a bloody menace. She's gotten a lot heavier and strong, so it takes Captain America strength to keep her down while she takes her injections.

We are currently at odds regarding her love for grass.

I, on one hand, had to pay out of pocket for a tick infection that wasn't planned for in her HMO (my fancy way of saying my bank account). A treatment that she fought hard and even bruised me to reject. Every time, she jumps in the grass, the red debit alert flashes through my brain. I sometimes find myself shouting "that your play is expensive o … biko come here."

Yes, that's the next rude awakening. Owning a dog right is expensive. Her food, bed, crate, supplements, toys, replacement toys, canned food, treats, snackies, etc all cost a shit ton of money. You'd think dogs were only for the elite.

She's mostly indoors with me. Sits with me while I lie down on the floor staring into space. She never lets me stare too long, because she exists and nothing in this world is more important than her getting a pat on the back or a rub in her belly. She loves to play, but she's older now and she maybe understands that papa has to work to put food in her belly.

We take walks together, a lot of walks. Sometimes, we walk for as long as 3 hours. The shortest walk is usually about 30 minutes round the estate. I should mention that she's an estate favourite — no thanks to the number of times she's run off-leash and made me pursue her through the estate.

The funniest part of having Hera around is watching people mispronounce her name. Her vet called her "Harry" for the first 3 months. You don't want to know what other people call her. It's almost like some people can't fathom dogs owning names different from Bingo or Lucky.

She's clingy. Like I said, she's spoilt. So, she acts out a lot when I'm not around. This includes chewing stuff she isn't supposed to chew, making a huge mess, and chewing some more stuff. Thank God for potty training, cleaning up poop or pee is not something I ever have to worry about when she's left alone. The rest is between me, her and fate.

She's chewed my Macbook and iPhone cords (my fault for leaving them lying around really), cut my fridge's cord, destroyed many of her toys, chewed open my pillows, etc. Thankfully, through "gentle parenting" and some "therapy", we corrected some behaviour like the cord chewing and pillow defacing … but there's nothing to be done about the toys.

One of the questions my friends asked me when I first got her was "why?" The prevailing thought that everyone seemed to have was that I got her to replace some deep seated feeling of loneliness or distract me from a situation. And while that is wildly untrue, I decided to accept it as a reason because I wasn't too bothered to try figure out why I wanted to have a dog.

But in retrospect? Maybe I got it because in a very long time I hadn't gotten something that I really really wanted. My parents flat out refused to get a dog because it wasn't our house. It was a resounding no to the idea of a pet, but it was open to discussion when we moved to our own house.

Guess who also got a dog? Yup! My mum.

If you didn't figure it out, Hera is female. I don't want her to give birth. I really hope she never does. I want to neuter her, but I expect it's going to be painful for her considering she's already grown. But it has to be done or else, we're going to always have to be on guard every time she's on heat.

I have never experienced her on heat yet. She's still young. I don't know what that would look like. It'd be a new experience as well. Whatever it is, I'm ready.

She's in my life for the next 10 - 15 years. That's the usual life expectancy for a GSD. It means every life decision has to consider her. In the next 1 or 2 years, I plan to get another dog. I wanted to get a Husky, but seeing that I already have the 2-in-1 package, I'd rather get a more protective dog. The choice is between a pure-breed male German Shepherd, a Belgian Malinois, or an Akita.

I love wolves, and I like my dogs looking like wolves.

So, should you get a dog? I don't know. It's up to you. But I love my dog — a lot. If you got one, and you're not Cruella, you'd love yours as well.

Thanks to the village raising Hera with me. Kilani is her best friend, Theodox is someone she has to tolerate, Stark is my tutor, and Jerry is her doggie-granddad. My parents, obviously, dote so much on Hera that it shocks me. My brothers, Paul and Phinehas, love the little mischief as well. Most importantly is Hera's chauffeur, Ayo.

So I guess this is it.

Cheers,

Praise.