March 1st — I’m not bringing him home. I’m not bringing him home. I’m just going to meet him. Driving to Nuzzles & Co. after seeing the puppy without eyes, I repeated that mantra.

In the waiting room, the adoption director told me his sister, who still had one eye went on a trial adoption — this little nugget would be all alone.

That wouldn’t do.

So, Achilles became Herman and rode home on my lap.

My grandpa used to say that the sense he would hate to lose the most was sight. He had macular degeneration and, at the end of his 99 years, could not see.

When she was a little girl, mom saw the way Grandpa signed his name. Emil H. Wyss. She asked what the “H” meant. Grandpa pointed to Nana and said, “Her Man.”

Turns out, Herman is four months old now. I backed his birthday out to December 28, 2021. Now, he is my man — part of the Hooker Horde.