When I bought Jongup from the pet shop it was a spur of the moment thing.  I had never had any interest in owning a pet and the whole idea of owning something that was more human than animal kind of bothered me. When my best friend came over to my place and told me there was some sort of puppy mill that was going out of business and that they were going to euthanize every pet that didn’t get adopted before the weekend. He had seemed so distressed over the situation that I have given in and gone with him to the store. That night I came home with a tiny creature sleeping in my arms.

 “Master?” Jongup rolled onto his back and smiled up at me when it was getting close to time for his walk. At first I had been convinced that he would be basically human, but as time went on it became quite apparent that he was far more puppy than he was human. “Walk time?” His tail beat against the ground underneath him and he pointed at the clock.  He had been with me for a month and he still had a proclivity for acting like the boss. “It’s noon now.”

Originally he’d only had one walk a day, but he had been far too energetic for that. Three walks a day was the only way I could get him to behave at all, four was required if I wanted him to sleep at night. I hoped that it would fade as he aged. I certainly needed it to happen. “I’m working, Baby.”

“Noon means walks.” He pointed in the general direction of his leash – because he still needed a leash and I wanted nothing more than to wean him off of the embarrassing thing. I knew that he wouldn’t just let me finish working before his walk, but I really needed to finish what I was working on. “It’s now noon one.”

“Jongup, I-“

“Noon two.” He pouted as his tail stilled. I really hadn’t expected that I could get away without giving Jongup his walk, but I had expected to get at least a few minutes before he noticed. Unfortunately Jongup was exceptionally observant about walk time. It made me feel slightly guilty when I thought he looked cute disappointed.

My work obviously wasn’t going to get done because there was no way to explain to my pet how important it was. He wouldn’t understand that if I didn’t finish this that there wouldn’t be any more food in his belly. “Can we go at noon fifteen?”

“Walks are at noon though.” He frowned up at me as he rolled over onto his stomach. “Please Master?” He jutted out his lower lip in an obvious attempt to be cute. “I want walks now.”

I looked over at him, which was more than enough to make him squirm with glee. He was always more than excited when I gave him any sort of attention, and that was something I had never experienced before. “Go get your leash.”

“Really?” He shot up immediately and ran to get his leash before I could change my mind. “Walks!” He brought it back to me and sat down at me feet with a bright smile on his face. He handed the leash to me, practically shaking with glee. “Long walks?”

“We can have a long walk after dinner, okay?” I scratched one of his ears gently and hooked the leash up to his collar. “I have to work.”

“Spending time with me is better though…” His tail drooped again and he pouted even more.

I tried to make up for not being able to give him what he wanted by scratching his ear but it didn’t seem to help. “It is.” I scratched his jaw before I stood up, he quickly followed suit and started running towards the door. It seemed that I wouldn’t have to explain myself just yet. I would have to when it was time to come home though. “Do you want to go to the park?”

“Yes! Yes! Yes! Park!” He started tugging me out of the door, and if I hadn’t been larger than him I probably would have been unsuccessful of keeping control of the situation. I locked the door and pulled at his leash until he fell into step beside me. “Love the park! There’s other pets to play with at the park!

“We can’t play with other pets today, Gup.” I was starting to feel a little guilty about not letting him have a long walk, and then even worse that he couldn’t play with anybody else. I just really needed to get home so I could finish my paper. I figured I could take him on an extra long walk that night after dinner. “Do you want to invite Junhong over tomorrow?”

He shrugged his shoulders at me and that was how I knew I was in trouble. He never turned down the opportunity to play with Yongguk’s pet unless he was incredibly upset about something. Just as I was trying to think of a good reward to give him for being a good boy even though he was upset he broke free from my grasp and sprinted down the street after something.

I had no choice but to chase after him and pray that there wouldn’t be any cops drive by us. He knew that he wasn’t allowed to run off on his own and he knew that we could both get in a lot of trouble if he did. He had never done it before and I had no idea what had gotten in to him. Once I managed to catch up to him I grabbed his leash and tugged it so hard he let out a whimper. He grabbed the collar with one of his hands and tried to loosen it but he quickly gave up. “What the hell, Jongup!”

I tugged one of his ears harder than I ever had before and he looked like I had just kicked him in the chest. “I’m sorry…” He whined at me until I gave the slack back on his leash. He was better behaved this this. “Now you have to spend more time with me though.” He mumbled and drew on the ground with one of his toes.

I frowned at him. How was misbehaving going to make me spend more time with him? It wasn’t until we were half way home that I noticed my pet was covered in mud and that I was going to have no choice but to wash him or he would get it all over everything. He would do it on purpose just to spite me. “Never do that again Jongup.” I scolded him, and from the wounded look he gave me I knew that he understood. “Go straight to the bathroom when we get home.”

He nodded his head and thankfully did exactly what I had asked of him. I followed him into the washroom and found him and sitting in the tub. “I’m ready for my bath, Master!” He wagged his tail up at me and was clearly more than proud of himself.