Goodbye to a puppy

In the middle of January, we got Hetty, our eight-week-old cockapoo puppy. The first few weeks especially were hard, but we’ve loved having a puppy.

We call her ‘puppy’ at least as much as we call her ‘Hetty’.

We talk a lot of what my younger son calls ‘Hetty nonsense’. We’re always saying things like ‘my puppy’, ‘beautiful puppy’, ‘good puppy’, ‘hello, puppy’ and ‘where’s my puppy?’.

I still love telling people: “We’ve got a puppy now!”

Except now it’s November. She’s 11 months old and turns 1 on 19th November.

She won’t be a puppy any more.

For nearly a year she’s been ‘the puppy’. We don’t see her any other way. How can that time have gone so quickly?

Dog doesn’t sound as cute as puppy. It sounds like the punchline to a joke. In sitcoms (and maybe in real life), people blame ‘the dog’ for farts. Men say they’re taking the dog for a walk to get away from their wife nagging. Then they walk the dog to the pub or the betting shop.

People don’t use puppies in that way. Puppies just bring joy and chaos.

I can’t believe the time has gone that quickly. I’m not ready to say goodbye to a puppy and hello to a dog. Hetty is far too chaotic and cute to be a proper grown-up dog.

My daughter insists she’s still going to call her ‘the puppy’ and I guess I probably will too, but I will try to ease off it. I certainly can’t tell people I’ve got a puppy any more. I’ll tell them I’ve got a young dog. And when we say ‘hello puppy’ or ‘beautiful puppy’, I’ll replace that with ‘doggy’. Doggy has the right number of syllables and sounds cuter than just dog.

For some larger breeds they would be considered puppies until 18 months or possibly even two years, as they are still growing. But Hetty hasn’t really grown since she was eight months. Generally, cockapoos are considered a medium dog (over 10kg), but she’s a small cockapoo of 8kg, so I guess that makes her a small dog. And definitely not a puppy.

Apparently, cockapoos remain very lively and chaotic until they’re 2. So even though she won’t actually be a puppy any more, she will still behave like one. I’m going to enjoy my puppy-like dog while I can!