Eden joined our household less than a week after it up and moved from Miami, Florida, to Danvers, Massachusetts. I picked her up in Lubbock, Texas; at the airport she was just eight and a half pounds, including her travel kennel. She’s now topped fifteen on her own and couldn’t fit in the since-sold kennel if she tried (which she emphatically wouldn’t). Despite her trepidation, she made at least four peoples’ days when I lifted her out to go through security that first day. She’s studious and cautious; quick to learn commands and slow to learn stairs.
Like most puppies, she bites almost incessantly, sleeps frequently, and eats ravenously. Like all puppies, she has her own trademark foibles. She chases her tail methodically, in a neat, measured, business-like circle, like a tiny site inspector—a far cry from the exuberant, clumsy, barking affair I’d anticipated. She sleeps in every imaginable position. She tries to walk on water when we’re kayaking and seems impervious to cold (though fear will get her shivering). She moves eerily silently at times, and hilariously clumsily at others. She’s never not hungry and once ingested enough of her own hair during an inexpert at-home trim to cough up hairballs like a cat.
She suffers separation anxiety in the crate—most eased by our closeness or Julian Rhind-Tutt’s reading of “her favourite book” (like mine, C.S. Lewis’ Mere Christianity). She loves having her teeth brushed, tolerates baths and brushing—provided treats are included—and could do without nail grinding. She adores people, snow, cheese, chicken, and broccoli, and plays tirelessly with her 3-year-old goldendoodle “cousin,” Sadie—provided she has the high ground.
Eden is quiet about her accomplishments. Once I turned around to see she’d found her way onto the couch unassisted—this well before she ever figured out how to climb a stair less than half its height. She managed that feat too, however, just this week. I brought an armful of books upstairs, turned to bring her up too, and discovered her standing behind me, quiet as ever.
“Did you take Eden upstairs?” I asked John-Mark.
“No—did she…?” He looked at her incredulously. We’d been trying to coax her up just the bottom step for at least two weeks.
She seems to have a sixth sense for when a camera comes out—and takes it as a cue to stop doing whatever cute thing she was engrossed in. Over the weeks I’ve managed to capture a few minutes and moments though. So, for your viewing pleasure—a glimpse of Eden from two to three months:
Natasha (Strydhorst) Unsworth (‘16) is a science communication researcher and practitioner working on her Ph.D. at Texas Tech University. Natasha hails from Calgary, Alberta. Some of her favo(u)rite authors are C. S. Lewis, Francis Collins, and Bill Bryson. Her favourite earthly place is the Canadian Rocky Mountains, and her favourite activities are reading and enjoying the great outdoors—preferably simultaneously.
