I’m getting a puppy for Christmas

I’m getting a puppy for Christmas. Her name is Molly
When I was a kid, I asked for a dog every Christmas. And every Christmas, I was sensibly informed that because I lived in a row house in Philadelphia, it wouldn’t be fair to a dog to be cooped up there with me. One year, to lessen the pain, I found a Pooch the Pup mechanical dog waiting under the tree for me on Christmas morning. Pooch looked like a dog but he sure didn’t act like a dog, even after we put in the 27 Double A batteries.
Pooch was supposed to do tricks. He lay there on his side and didn’t move. Pooch was supposed to bark. He managed a few feeble metallic clicks and went silent. Pooch was supposed to keep me amused and delighted for hours. He held me spellbound for about five minutes. My dad, the poster boy for Christmas morning patience, tried his best to get Pooch into the spirit of the occasion. And I’m afraid he lost his temper and said a few bad words about Christmas, Santa Claus, and a certain company somewhere out in the mid-west.
Now, I’m a grown-up and I don’t live in a row house in the city any more.
So I’m getting a puppy.
I got a puppy last Christmas, too.
There’s a catch of course. The puppy isn’t mine to keep. A female black Lab, the pup belongs to the Seeing Eye in Morristown.
Seeing Eye trusts my family to raise the puppy for the next year or so. Then, the dog moves to north Jersey for “formal” training that will result in its becoming a guide dog for a sight-impaired person.
The puppy I got last Christmas is named Kelly We’re partial to black Labs at our house. They’re playful, friendly, and always cheerful; qualities I find absent in myself after a day’s work. It’s nice to have a dog in the house to remind me that life continues…actually begins..after work hours.
Our family has been training puppies for a number of years, through the PPAWS (People and Puppies at Work for Sight) 4H club.
Everybody always asks how we can give up the dog. And we roll our eyes and come out with the standard answer about how we know that our dog is going on to a fulfilling life providing service to another human being. But the truth is it’s going to be hard to give up Hedy, all that noble stuff notwithstanding.
That’s why I’m getting a puppy for Christmas. Molly will have a few months with Kelly to learn the ropes before Kelly heads up to Seeing Eye. We’ll probably have our own little St Patrick’s day parade this year with Molly and Kelly wearing the green.
Raising puppies for Seeing Eye is a rewarding experience for young people and a terrific family activity. PPAWS always welcomes new club members and Seeing Eye is looking for puppy raisers. It’s too late to get a puppy for this Christmas but if you would like to find out more about the program, call the Cape May County Extension Service at
465-5115.
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