Or maybe I’m the other woman; she actually came first.
Gida is a 12-pound, nearly 10-year-old Boston terrier. I met her the first time I hung out with my now-husband in 2007. She has gone from being “my friend’s dog” to “my boyfriend’s dog” to “our dog,” with “our flower girl” thrown in for good measure in 2010.
Since she is roughly 30 percent smaller than normal; maintains a short, perfect coif; and matches everything with her classic black-and-white pattern, people often wonder about her potential as an accessory dog. First, I balked at the suggestion. I beg your pardon, she is not being carried in a diamond-studded bag, nor is she sporting clothes that cost more than mine. Nor do I, an empowered woman of today, care about that kind of stuff anyway. And so forth.
But, then, I thought about how dog people are often evaluated — for at least that first split-second — by our dogs. You see a dog and a dude walking down the street, and you usually look at the dog first. Even in my best clothes and best hair day, I get nothin’ if Gida is tip-tapping alongside me on her red leash. You go to a dog park, and humans fall into the background of this primitive dogs-first stage. Then you look at the human and try to determine what kind of person they are, based on their dog and how they interact with him or her. At least, this is what I do.
So, intentional accessory or not, let’s review what she brings to the style table.
She has an American Apparel t-shirt, yep. That’s her and a friend, Switch, in 2004. These shirts are actually really well-made.
Performance fleece of some kind, which might be her best-looking piece of outerwear. She wears this in rain, too, because she probably hates rain more than anyone else in SF does. And that’s saying something.
The best flower girl in the world in 2010.
She will be 10 years old in September and only recently got her first “Is she older?” from a stranger — her gray is becoming a dead giveaway despite her youthful bounce, but she doesn’t seem to let it bother her. A good lesson for us all.
San Francisco-based Tara Ramroop Hunt writes and edits a lot, mostly for the webz. She doesn’t, however, have many opportunities to write about her pup. Thanks mucho to Katie C. for this opportunity. Find Tara’s written blatherings on Weddingbee and Muni Diaries.
Adorable!! Bostons are such sweet dogs, and it sounds like she definitely has that terrier spirit even though she’s getting up in her years! She’s so cute!
Gida is so, so adorable! She looks so sweet!
Hubby and co-Gida human here. Just want to note for the record that Gida and Tara are equally my girls. That is all.