My Dog is Only Happy When I Leave

So a lot has happened since my previous post last Friday. The Super Bowl and halftime show. (For what it's worth, Twitter during the halftime show is my favorite 20 minutes of twitter for the entire year.) There was the New Hampshire primary elections last night that saw Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders get big wins.

But I want to talk about my dog today. We adopted Wrigley about three years after my wife and I got married. She's a beagle mix (with what, we're not sure as we rescued her) that is just about the perfect dog for us. At this point, she's about 11 years old and while she doesn't have the energy she used to, we don't either, so it works out well. She's gotten to the point that she doesn't even like to go for walks with me anymore because apparently the two miles I go is too far for her.

But unlike most dogs who are super excited to see their owners when they come home, Wrigley doesn't even acknowledge when I walk in the door. No greetings, no excitement, no "I'm glad you're home now let me out."

Instead, I she's excited when I leave.

She used to get very anxious when we would go to work in the mornings, so we would give her a rawhide bone to chew on to work off that anxiety and keep her from chewing up my son's stuffed animals (RIP Lion). But that got expensive, so we switched to giving her a dog treat before we left. Understandably, this was exciting for her. And it happened day after day.

And now, anytime I look like I'm going to leave, she runs to the pantry expecting a treat. So if I'm going to the mailbox to get the mail, she thinks it's treat time. If I'm just going to the garage to put something away, she thinks it's treat time.

Basically, she now believes me leaving is cause for a celebration, and I'm not sure how I feel about that.

On to the links:

We Are Hopelessly Hooked - The average person checks their phone every 4.3 minutes. That seems like a lot. I mean, who does ..... ohhhh, twitter notification, be right back.

Stick to Sports? Never! - Craig Calcaterra with a look at where sports writing is heading and why that's a good thing.

The Enduring Solidarity of Whiteness - Black Poverty is fundamentally distinct from White Poverty - And so cannot be addressed without grappling with racism.

Why is the NFL Giving More Super Bowl Ad Time to its Favorite Sham Domestic-Violence Group - Remember that Super Bowl ad for No More? This article takes a look at what the charity actually does.

Is Solitary Confinement Torture? -  More and more, I feel like the answer is yes.

Roger Goodell Defends the Indefensible - Sally Jenkins takes the NFL commissioner to task for his comments on the risks of football. 

Hang Up and Listen podcast - Ok, so not an article, and I'm not even recommending you listen to the whole thing, but from the 55:40 mark to the 1:00:30 mark, Stefan Fatsis discusses an article in which high school football coaches are asked what they'd say to parents of kids who want to play football but are concerned with concussions and brain injuries. Some not-safe-for-work language, but close your office door for five minutes and you'll be fine.