Doggie Dating: Part 2

     Sometimes I brake and coast through traffic at 4pm, confident the slow lane is advancing faster than the others. In the back seat she climbs unsuspected and like an amateur sheds enough hair in five minutes to clothe a family of Eskimos. Her antics will cost an hour of vacuuming as we creep toward Rosie's Dog Park in Long Beach, still hopeful to enjoy some sun before the early winter smog-set at 4:30pm. I remember happily our first visit to the dog beach. Gentle lake like swells eased Paola into the joy that is playing fetch in the waves. A handful of patient people shared their tennis balls as she would out-sprint their dogs knocking down children who got in her way. Bringing a puppy to the ocean for the first time in LA is more work than it is pleasure, so was it a mistake to make a date of it too?
   
     For someone who considered nine dog-less years to be downright unnatural I was happy to finally bring home a shelter mutt for my own last year. On one hand are the compromises and expenses associated but the benefits cannot be counted. Besides the obvious, companionship and the irrational devotion a dog extends to their owner, I've found there are many additional perks that come with dog adoption. Not least of these is the puppy-fication of a dating profile. It's impossible to calculate the increase in value a dog brings to your picture. So many swipers confess to the phenomenon in their bios or initial messages it's tempting to exclude oneself from the picture and just let Paola take the wheel.
   
     Salt and sand stuck to everything as we trudged back to the car. Failing for the first time to overthink this one I felt confident. Another critter there to distract me may have done more good than I could've anticipated and we drove back. Beach Boys radio on Pandora did not disappoint and a slow crawl home lulled my four-legged friend to sleep in the back seat. We pulled up to her apartment and before leaving she kissed me. On cue Paola pushed between us for her own sloppy send off and it felt perfect in that flawed way only reality can. I can't pretend to know why we never went out again despite my efforts and a reason was never given. Trying to learn something from every experience will drive you crazy though, especially when they don't make sense. Sometimes great memories and a happy puppy are enough.