#200 (of 365) "Goodbye, Oh Goodbye" AJJ

7/27/2025

At long last, we have reached the top 200 on this countdown of Vague Space's favorite music of all time. And this song is appropriate as it (indirectly) led to the last 5 1/2 years of my life as a dog-owner. Back during Christmas 2019 (pre-Covid!) my partner was insistent (as he had been for years) that we get a dog. I was adamantly against it but had "agreed" that summer that we would get one that fall/winter under a number of conditions that basically abdicated all responsibility for me to do anything for or with said dog, including paying the (eventual) $3000 price tag. I secretly assumed he would never agree to these conditions (which he didn't) and so I'd never have to get a dog.

I was never a dog lover. They were "fine" but mostly I saw other owners ignoring their dogs when I went to their house, treating them as a nuisance for the most part ("get off the couch!", "No, don't eat that!", "Stop bothering them", "Can somebody take (insert dog's name) outside!". Plus, I didn't want my life to change. I didn't want to have to be home to walk her, or feed her, or generally spend any time with her. I wanted to go to Brooklyn for 12 hours if I wanted to and not have responsibilities at home. Not to mention travel. For work. For pleasure. I didn't want a dog. At all.

Mike started going to Shake-A-Paw in Union almost daily come December. He kept picking dogs and playing with them and I think I went with him once, but remained adamant on my "THESE ARE THE CONDITIONS" stance, which he was unable to comply with--mostly the money part. Then right around Christmas, he told me he found his dog and put down a $25 deposit and we needed to go pick her up that weekend... if I agreed. I did not agree. But I said I was willing to hear him out and I did, but of course wasn't ready to give in, so I pulled out the list of conditions--basically, he could use my credit to get her on a payment plan but he had to pay all the payments and she was his dog, not mine. I would walk and feed her while I was home (I worked from home, he didn't) but that was it, and I was still going to live my life like I had and if I wanted to go to Brooklyn for 12 hours, then it was on him to stay home and walk her. Mike said no to the conditions, basically, so I said no to the dog, and then Mike said no dog no more Mike and stormed out of the apartment (I think--these are my remembered version of events, not his).

Anyway, I went to pick up pizza we had ordered before the fight, enraged that he would not give in to the conditions and still expect me to get the dog. But I put on my music while walking to the pizza shop around the corner in Hoboken and "Goodbye, Oh Goodbye" came on. I didn't select it. It was just the next song on the playlist. "Goodbye, Oh Goodbye". And that's what I was thinking, right then and there. If I refused to get the dog, I was going to lose Mike. The song was literally saying to me "yeah, um this is goodbye unless you give in". But I still had a decision to make and I was so enraged, a part of me wanted to risk that goodbye, because I really really really didn't want to upend my life for a dog, but the other part of me, the one that won out, caved and told Mike we could go to the pet store the next day.

I still wasn't convinced even driving there that I was going to give ink but then I met Elie, this tiny little mini schnauzer that Mike had already named. And we came home with her.

Five-and-a-half years later, I no longer go to Brooklyn for 12 hours at a time. I'm the one who feeds her, even when Mike is home. I'm the one who walks her, I'm the one who stays home or rushes home if Mike's not around. I'm the one who takes her everywhere and she follows me around the house like--well, like she's in love with me. And that makes sense because I'm in love with her. Not that Mike isn't as well, but he does treat her more like a dog than a human, and I do not, for better or worse. I love her too much for that. But I was wrong and Mike was right to expect that I be part of the ownership--since she'd be part of the family--and to risk a (very significant) change in my life to bring about something better. And it was better. Much better. Five-and-a-half years later, going to Shake-a-Paw with Mike to pick up Elie was the best decision I ever made.

Thanks, in part, to this song.

"Goodbye, Oh Goodbye" - AJJ // The Bible 2 (2016)