She Named Her Dog Karen

Her smile always managed to contort in such a way that most people found it interesting, but at the same time disagreeable. In her 40+ years on the planet, Cynthia rarely experienced what most people would call a happy go lucky attitude. She tried to justify her perpetual unhappiness on some sort of curse that was handed down from her grandmother Gertrude. Grandmother Gertie was best known as a hell raiser to the 10th degree.

Curse or no curse, Cynthia wasn’t a happy camper throughout most of her life. Romance of any kind never seemed to show up on her duffel doorstep.

Approximately two years ago, Cynthia ran into a stray dog when she was walking home from work. At first, she did not pay too much attention to that mutt, but apparently the dog fell in love with her and followed her all the way home. As Cynthia entered her small apartment on the bottom floor of a rundown, three-story, she looked back and saw the dog was sitting there, hopefully wagging its tail. Somehow that accelerated dog tail wagging made something open up in her heart. Even to this day, she could not explain to anyone what happened to her. All of a sudden, she had a live-in companion, and it was a dog. Deep down inside Cynthia had always hoped there would be a man as a live-in companion and he would be the attentive, dedicated lover that she dreamt about rarely, but often enough.

Cynical, Cynthia took on the responsibility of caring for that stray dog. At first, she just called the dog, ‘Dog.’ Until one day a coworker told her a joke about ‘A Karen,’ which, at the time, was all the rage. Karen jokes were popping up everywhere, especially on social media. Not that Cynthia would know anything about that because she did not believe that connecting with people on social media was a good idea. Needless to say, the Karen joke made her laugh from her belly on up. In fact, that amusement released a whole bunch of oxytocin throughout Cynthia's body. Nothing like that had ever occurred in her life… ever!

She was feeding the dog, she named Dog her table scraps which were meager at best. In the small neighborhood store she discovered they had pet food. Standing in the middle of that aisle was a muscular built woman that looked to be in her mid to late 60s. Cynthia got brave and asked that woman if she knew anything about feeding a dog. The lady responded, “What do you mean feeding a dog?” Something Cynthia rarely did was talk to people in public, let alone having a conversation with someone she did not know. Nevertheless, Cynthia told the woman in the aisle the story about how she ended up with the dog.

The woman was kind and understanding, but also took the course of not looking directly at Cynthia’s face for more than a brief second or two. A situation that by now Cynthia knew all too well, why the woman would not speak directly to her, but it did seem to bother her, all she really wanted to know was what kind of food to get her dog.

The extra-large dog food bag was heavy to carry home, and all along the way Cynthia thought to herself. “I hope this mutt enjoys this food, it costs enough.” when she entered her apartment, Dog was sitting in the middle of the small living room, quietly, waiting for her. She proceeded to go into the kitchen and find a container to put some of the food in. No doubt the dog was plenty hungry and once he saw the food in the bowl, he scarfed it down. Seeing the dog engorging himself on that food, tugged on her heart so much so that she sat down on the floor next to the dog. Within a second or two after she sat down, the dog rushed over, and licked her face. Now Cynthia was experiencing something she never felt before.

Smiling on the inside, and clearly smiling on the outside.

If anybody would’ve witnessed how much that changed Cynthia’s expression, they would’ve thought it was entirely a different person.

“It’s rude of me to call you Dog,” Cynthia spoke out loud making sure the dog could easily hear her. She continued the conversation by pulling the dog closer to her, and looking directly into the dog’s eyes and said, “You need a name. What should I call you? I think you deserve a good name.” “I’m going to sleep on it to make sure it’s a good one that suits you well.”

The next day was Saturday, and she did not have to work. Cynthia got up early, both her, and Dog went for a walk. There was a very small park not too terribly far from her home, so she decided to head that direction. It was practically empty, nobody around when she entered the park. On the other side, there seemed to be a gentleman with a hat, it looked to her like he was trying to decide if he was going to sit down on a bench and read the newspaper he had tucked under his arm.

It was a warm Saturday morning and Cynthia decided to wear a tank top. Generally, she would never wear one outside, only when she was cleaning her apartment. Cynthia felt it was a little too revealing of her upper torso. And it always caused people, especially men to stare at her. But today she was happy and feeling carefree.

As she and Dog walked deeper into the park, the man she saw was now sitting on the bench, looking at his newspaper. She felt he was preoccupied and would not pay too much attention to her but as it turned out, she was wrong. The man stood up and walked over to her and complimented her on her dog and quickly asking, “What is this pup called? I mean what name does he or she go by? I’m guessing it’s a she dog.” Cynthia was a bit taken back. She wasn’t used to having strangers speak to her when she was out and about.

“I haven’t given this dog a name yet, and I’m embarrassed to tell this man that I haven’t. He’s going to think that it’s not even my dog.” Cynthia, in her happy state, thought she would jokingly say, “Oh my dog's name is Karen. Well immediately the man laughed. “I’ve never heard of a dog being named Karen.”

Cynthia got a bit embarrassed, but for whatever reason she stuck to it. “Yep, that's my dog's name, Karen and yes, she is a she.” The gentleman proceeded to tell her, “Well it’s a fine name, and it certainly is a fine-looking dog.

The kind stranger shared his name with Cynthia, “My name is Arnold. Most everyone calls me, Arnie, and I would be honored if you would call me that too.” Cynthia responded, sharing her name with Arnie. Feeling deeply comfortable with Arnie, Cynthia replied “Well then, I will call you Arnie. I like your name, I'm glad I met you.”

By now, Cynthia was down on her knees petting and holding her dog close to her. She looked up at Arnie. He was staring at her in the most intense way. She never had a man look at her quite like that. In fact, no one looked at her quite like that except maybe her grandma Gertie, who’s intense looks at her, most often than not, were always vindictive. Cynthia liked the way Arnie was staring at her, she felt like he was looking into her soul with wantedness, not the vulgar kind, but one that showed a caring heart.

Like all good stories, this one has a happy ending. Cynthia and Arnie got to know each other during the ensuing weeks and before long Cupid entered the picture. They married. The rest of this story filled with strange twists of fate, will be left for another day. Stay tuned.