Is this your first time?

A few days go, we took Luckey to the dog run in Madison Square Park upon the boy's insistence. Apparently, Luckey needs puppy friends. It was fun in the simplest and most joyful sense of the word. I was--pardon the analogy--like a new mom taking her kid to his first day of kindergarten; hesitant at first to put Luckey down with the Dalmations and Great Danes loping around. He talked me into it gently; without pushing me, he encouraged me to just see what happened. Once I placed Luckey on the ground he ran to me and kept jumping to be picked up. I resisted the urge to do so. He cowered under the benches we sat on for a time. I ignored him.

Other dog owners looked at us dubiously. We were the newbies at the dog run. A few different female owners approached us to confirm that it was in fact our very first time. I can't say I enjoyed the attention, seeing as how it wasn't particularly positive, but we were definitely the new folks being welcomed into the community. It was surreal--my version of a surburban experience in the big city.

The boy kept trying to pry him out from under there and get him acquainted with the other dogs. He was the one to jump in and scoop Luckey off the ground when a few of the other pups ganged up on him, playfully. He was the one who held my hand and frowned with concern every time a larger dog raced by Luckey--scaring my diminutive dog with its sheer size and force of being. The experience made me realize that was as close to a family moment I ever wanted--had invisioned--for myself.

After this exercise in letting my puppy grow, we split a bottle of wine at Shake Shack and sat at a lone table in the middle of a dusty patch with the Empire State Building lit up in red and blue. Luckey sat at our feet, lapping up the Pooch-ini, the boy insisted on getting him for being a good boy at the dog run. It was a classic New York moment. Me in my flowing black skirt billowing around, Him in his fresh from work suit, Luckey luxuriating in the blissful moment of doggie dessert...it was very sitcom.