Paging Dr. Hamblin: A Kid Tried to Pet My Dog and I Said No
Editor’s Note: Every Wednesday, James Hamblin takes questions from readers about health-related curiosities, concerns, and obsessions. Have one? Email him at paging.dr.hamblin@theatlantic.com.
Dear Dr. Hamblin,
My girlfriend and I got a pandemic puppy. He’s a King Charles cavalier named Rooster, and he’s now six months old. We take him for walks around San Francisco a couple of times a day, and everyone wants to pet him. When he was younger, we let it happen because we wanted him to socialize. But now we’ve stopped allowing it. When people come and try to pet him, we say something like, “Sorry, we’re not doing pets today.” He naps in our bed, and it just seems too unsafe, since he might carry the coronavirus into the house. My girlfriend is good at letting people down easy,
