The Road to Glory — Day 21. Today was my dog Tiger’s birthday! He’s…
By: Greg Garcia
Tags: Travel Writing, Japanese Culture, Japanese Language, Travel, Japanese

Today was my dog Tiger’s birthday! He’s just 1 year old. When I came back from Japan in April 2020 amidst a nationwide lockdown, I was pretty much at a loss as to what I was doing or what I was going to do or what was even possible to do with my life. Going to Japan was sort of my backup plan to all my backup plans and when even that didn’t work out, I felt like a complete failure as a human being. I still pretty much feel like a complete failure as a human being but I thought then, as I still think now, that I’d be less of a complete failure if I managed to raise up an awesome, well-behaved dog from a puppy.

The day I brought him home.

I started looking around for dogs in June of 2020 and as luck would have it, there was a breeder right here in Santa Fe who was expecting a litter of Bernese Mountain Dogs that coming August. I knew nothing about Bernese Mountain Dogs except that they were huge. I’d actually been looking for a hound dog, because of my love for the movie The Fox and the Hound, and if you don’t know that movie, go watch it, and if you’ve watched that movie and you didn’t like it, f*** you.

Well, I started doing some research and I found out that they’re basically these sweet, smart, gentle giants, who love to help their humans any way they can. So I thought, maybe I should give this a try. I’ve got enough time, space, and energy to handle a big dog. Maybe it’ll be great. I was totally wrong though. It’s been amazing!

Tiger is the most awesome dog that ever graced this crazy planet. He likes to help me with my chores, bring me my shoes, eat my books (that last one is not actually a good thing), and most of all, he loves me even when I can’t see anything about myself worth loving. He’s a perfect dog and the best friend I’ve ever had. Still, it wasn’t always sunshine and rainbows. There was the dreaded…PUPPY PHASE.

Oh. My. God.

Picture the cutest ball of fluff you’ve ever seen in your whole life. Now give it a bunch of razor sharp teeth and a jaw that clamps down hard enough to bruise and doesn’t let go. Now give it enough energy to power Jeffery’s next trip to space, and you’ve got Tiger when he was just a little pup.

Don’t be fooled. I’m a ferocious beast.

I got him late September of 2020 and I didn’t get a full night’s sleep until around Christmas of that year. It was hell! Sheer hell every day and night. My hands and arms were covered in scars from his teething, playing too hard, and generally just being a little monster. Whenever he’d take a nap, so would I and GOD HELP YOU if you woke him up during those precious moments of peace.

Nap time.

But we learned a lot about each other during that time. I learned all the things he loves (eating shoes and books, stealing breakfasts, digging up the raspberry bushes, chewing the drip irrigation lines, car rides with the window down, getting ear scratches, snow, BONES, food) and all the things he hates (the vet, stairs, his shadow, his reflection, the word NO, heights, mud, getting left alone, time outs, sharing his toys with the other dogs, seeing the other dogs try to give me attention) and he learned all the things that I don’t like him to do (PLEASE STOP CHEWING ON MY HANDS WHY DID YOU EAT MY SOCKS THAT WAS MY BURRITO YOU JUST PEED A MINUTE AGO WHAT THE HELL HAVE YOU DONE TO THIS RUG) and all the things I do like him to do (thank you for loving me all the time and for not caring that I’m a mess and please continue to do that because I love you).

Don’t touch my lamb.

I don’t know what any of this has to do with learning Japanese except that when I’m studying, he’s usually right there next to me, probably wondering what the hell I’m doing. Whenever I’m afraid that I’ve lost control of my life or that I’m just a complete loser, I look at Tiger and I think, at least I’m doing this one thing right. He’s a great dog and everybody loves him. He listens to me and he tries his best to make me happy every day. I gotta think that if he could understand why learning Japanese is so important to me, he’d be saying, “Go for it, Greg. Let’s go to Japan together. I don’t speak Japanese, so it’ll be good that you do! I don’t speak English either though, so it’s cool either way!”

Anyway, he’s a great dog and I can’t believe he’s mine. I’m glad I was able to give him a good birthday.

Happy Birthday Tiger.

Day 21, done. 125 days left to go.