Nalu was a pandemic pupp, a post-breakup puppy, and was prescribed as my ESA (emotional support animal). When my therapist gave the prescription, I thought surely it would be a piece of cake finding a small puppy on-island. Well this was corona times. So nothing was a piece of cake.
Why did I need an ESA, you might wonder? After spending no joke, months in what could best be described as complete and total social isolation during COVID lockdowns, my mental health really started to take a toll. There were nights where I would be in lockdown alone, in my Hawaiian pillbox of a studio apartment for the nth day in a row. And I would have to say aloud to myself “yep, I’m still in this apartment. We’re still in a pandemic, this is really real life, and we’re still on lockdown” just to keep myself rooted to reality. The only thing I had to break the monotony of spending days on end in my apartment unemployed and completely alone was making sure I watched different movies on Netflix every night. Even going for the same neighborhood walk routes was starting to feel like the movie Groundhog Day. After all, you can only get so far on foot. And they were even telling us we couldn’t drive anywhere “not essential” without fear of getting fined.
Part of the way into furloughed COVID madness, I was able to get a nannying gig for 3 hours per day, which slightly helped. But when the only other person you’re having any conversation or interaction with is two years old, that’s only gonna take you so far. So this puppy prescription came as a welcomed relief.
“Thank God”, I thought to myself, “I can get a puppy and there will be an end to all this aloneness”. So like any sensible person, I hopped on the Hawaii humane society website– no small dogs available. And no adoption appointments available for at least a month out. “OK”, I thought, “I can wait a month. It’ll give me something to look forward to”. Well the very night before my appointment, the Hawaiian human society suddenly decided to change their appointment procedures. This meant that my appointment was now null and void, and I legitimately had to start the appointment waiting process all over again.
“Wtaf”, I thought to myself, as I hopped on the Oahu Craigslist puppies for sale page. And this is where the reality of getting a puppy in Hawaii really hit me. Random mixed breed puppies on this island, that weren’t even designer mixes, were costing an upwards of $1000. Pure bred puppies were costing up to $5,000. No joke. Everyone also charged separate “rehoming fees” of hundreds of dollars, even for a craigslist sale!
So at that point, it became clear that if I was going to get a dog that would be in my life for the next 12 years, I had to be prepared to shell out some cash. And if that was the case, then I was going to get the puppy of my dreams, not just any random puppy that was available. And for me, my dream puppy was the Brussels Griffon, which I discovered thanks to an instagram search suggestion.
Instagram had suggested I take a look at the little black Griffon belonging to @tabarinova. There was the little guy, looking like a little black gremlin munchkin, sitting atop her lap as she’s dressed to the nines. And I remember thinking “oh my god that is the cutest little puppy I have ever seen in my life– what mix is that???”. The automatic thought of every single human being who has never heard of the Brussels Griffon. Lo and behold, I discovered it wasn’t a mix at all– it was its own breed, the Brussels Griffon. The tiny, perfect, cute, not quite a Frenchie not quite a Pug, adorable, sad-faced little gremlin monkey dog with a sturdy build, pointy ears, and few if any health problems. I went down the instagriff rabbit hole from that day forward. I discovered that this dog comes in multiple varieties. I knew I wanted a smooth coat, cause ya girl cannot be doing any grooming, and I was open on the color: brown or black.
The search for my own griff commenced. And that’s the thing… turns out Brussels Griffon rare AF and difficult to find, very expensive, and will of course get snatched up quickly as soon as a litter comes into existence. Usually they’re spoken for before the litter even comes into existence. I called breeder after breeder on the west coast of the USA, and started to realize how hard it was to get your hands on one of these little guys.
As if being in a pandemic by yourself isn’t bad enough, part way in, I ended up meeting a man I who I authentically believed at the time could have become the love of my life. I still think he’s the human love of my life, he just doesn’t know it. If there was a such thing as soulmates or twin flames, this was as close to a human soulmate romantic experience I had ever experienced. But then COVID sent that relationship down the toilet a few months later, along with my job, my social life, my bible study group, all of my favorite hobbies, and life as we all used to know it. And it was right back to spending every waking hour with a two year old, or completely by myself again. Little did I know, soulmates can also have four legs and fur.
Following one of my hardest post-breakup cries, I thought “I don’t care anymore– I need to get away. I need a “win” in life right now”. My sister had recently had a baby in California, and I wanted to visit her and the baby. After all, there I was floating around Oahu with no job, no hobbies, no boyfriend, no active friendships, alone in my apartment, and zero structure to my life whatsoever aside from certifying my unemployment status on a weekly basis. And babysitting. Flights to everywhere were cheaper than I’d ever experienced in my lifetime; so I figured I should probably go meet my new nephew while I had no time obligations, and no one was really flying. And I booked a flight.
Tell me how a Brussels Griffon breeder was having an unexpected litter that would be ready for rehoming at the exact same time I had booked that flight to California?! What are the odds? It gets better: since the litter was unplanned, the breeder was selling the puppies for a discount! And there was one smooth coat left, a little brown boy. My future puppy.
Getting this puppy involved some major risks on my part that I typically would not take. Most obviously, taking a flight to the mainland USA in the start of a global pandemic everyone was highly frightened about. Making arrangements for where to stay in Los Angeles. Meeting a complete stranger breeder I had never heard of in my life also during a pandemic, and sending this woman a money order for hundreds of dollars as a nonrefundable security deposit. But again, this was very much a “bucket list” moment for me. I literally only had like 4 things in my life left to lose: money, my health, my apartment, and my car. Everything else was already gone. That “win” I felt I needed? It was about to come in the form of my dream puppy.
I had also never imported a dog to Hawaii before, though I was well aware of Hawaii’s stringent animal import requirements. Originally my plan was to leave the puppy with my other sister in the SF Bay Area until he got both his rabies shots and was cleared for import. But I started to realize a few days into this trip that the ‘get rabies-vaccined up with auntie’ plan was not going to work after all.
So that is how and why I ended up having to bring Nalu back with me, and having to place him in the care of Hawaii’s animal quarantine station for 120 days. Which was the longest 120 days of our lives. But it all worked out in the end, and we made it through. How, exactly did we make it through? Read on ◡̈
puppy & paradise 