When it comes to mak­ing big life deci­sions, col­lege is full of them. After a cou­ple of months of search­ing and apply­ing for adop­tion, I recently became the father of a six week old… puppy. My new best friend, Horton, is half lab and half Australian shep­herd and all fun.

Long nights in the Torch office have given way to longer nights work­ing from my apart­ment when the curi­ous young pup has taken a brief nap. Saturday morn­ings of sleep­ing in and mas­sive bowls of cereal are no more. Now, Horton is up and at ‘em by 5:30 a.m. and after he gets his break­fast, I might have a piece of last night’s pizza.

Though the hours are long and the con­stant stoop­ing to direct him in some way have taken a phys­i­cal and men­tal toll, the strong aroma of puppy breath that only a dog lover can appre­ci­ate reminds me to be patient. Recently Horton and I have been work­ing on mon­u­men­tal obsta­cles like climb­ing up and down the stairs, not putting our feet in our water dish and walk­ing on a leash. Success has come at dif­fer­ent rates for each task, but most efforts have been victorious.

Tacking on an addi­tional respon­si­bil­ity at this point in my life may not have been the best idea. School, work and now the respon­si­bil­ity of another liv­ing thing can cause some seri­ous stress. But, a cou­ple of good tosses of the ten­nis ball, an affec­tion­ate lick­ing of the toes or a sat­is­fied sigh at the end of an excel­lent day with Horton makes it all worthwhile.