Gear | FURminator, etc.

After adopting Chewie, I realized that while she satisfied much of my dog wish list (primarily “cute” and “rescued”), she was not, in any way, hypo-allergenic. A small oversight, I told myself. She’s such a little thing, how much could she possibly shed?

This turned out to be a dumb question. Chewie sheds like nobody’s business. I find her little hairs everywhere—on my clothes, in my bag, even on the screen of my iPhone. To make matters worse, Chewie sleeps in bed. Not on. IN. She has done this since Day One. Apparently, I am not the kind of person who can ignore a crated puppy’s whimpering and crying. I caved immediately and let the entitlement begin.

The fur requires constant cleaning. I’ve employed the FURminator, endless lint rolls, the Pledge Fabric Sweeper for Pet Hair (which you can empty and reuse), and the supposedly allergen-reducing Eureka Boss SmartVac 4870MZ.

After a thorough house-clean, I switch into disciplinarian mode. “No couch!” I bark, shooing her off. This approach lasts, at most, two days. There are times I think, next time, I’ll be different. I’ll limit the doggy domain. Plenty of people don’t allow their dogs upstairs, or on the furniture. But I wonder if that would defeat the point for me. My desire for a pristine white couch fades when I picture myself on it, alone. And it's strangely comforting to find a stray Chewie hair in an odd place, like my desk at work, or on vacation.