“Are you really just now telling me that we have a special towel for the dog?” I asked my wife after finding out I had in fact been using the dog’s towel for multiple days. Have you ever heard of such a thing — a towel only for the dog? I was not thrilled with this revelation.

Apparently every time I’ve given Beesly a bath, Sera has unbeknownst to me provided us with the same green towel to dry off the dog. With Beesly turning 3 years old this summer, I would have assumed I knew this routine, but I did not.

Our household typically uses two colors for towels — blue and purple — and to my ffinterchangeably. On the towel rack in the bathroom, Sera’s is always the one closest to the shower, and mine is slightly further away because my arms are longer. We established this unspoken towel routine shortly after we were married, and when I realized we never actually discussed who was using which towel, I was thankful we were somehow of one mind on the topic. Being in sync with one another has always been a blessing of our marriage in particular, but that did not hold true on the issue of the dog’s towel.

Then we had a baby and life got a little chaotic. A few days behind in the laundry and suddenly I needed a towel. To be honest, normally I don’t even think about using a new towel — Sera just swaps them out every once in awhile and occasionally I notice when she has done it.

After going for a run and realizing my towel from the morning was still damp, I decided to swap out my towel without the assistance of my spouse. You would think I would be capable to do such a task. The green towel sat unused in the closet and would certainly do the job, so I grabbed it and proceeded to use it for the next several days. Only when I shared with Sera that I intended to give Beesly a bath did she question why I was using the dog’s towel. My loving wife had of course noticed I was using the towel for a few days, but she had decided to accept my choice — as if I had purposefully chosen to use the dog’s towel.

Flash forward a few days, and I’m ready to give Beesly a much overdo bath. Sera’s family would be visiting soon, and I wanted to make sure the dog was appropriately clean to be in the presence of guests. It is not until this moment that Sera shares with me that Beesly’s towel existed and that I was using it.

Thankfully, Beesly did not mind that I was using her towel. She did still get her bath, but I she didn’t use her traditional green towel. Instead she was dried off by one of the pink ones that hardly ever gets used. I assume the pink towels are Sera’s from before we got married, and I’m sure, despite their non-green color, that they can handle the task of drying off the dog. Because there were no complaints on this change from the dog, perhaps I’ll proceed forward with the same pink towels for her next bath.

I wonder how many other things I don’t know about my own house. If I never realized there was a dog towel, surely there are more mysteries that I have yet to stumble upon. I can’t imagine any more mysteries in relation to the towels. Our daughter’s towels are all quite small and have a little hood attached — not something I would easily mistake for my own. Adult towels might be more admired if they had hoods built in, but society has progressed beyond that point. I don’t plan to be the one fighting that battle.

I guess the lesson here is that you should never stop learning. Just when you think you have something figured out like using a towel, you may discover a new rule that changes how you’ll forever use future towels. Here’s to your new discoveries and that they don’t involve wet dogs.

 

Rochester resident Matt Knutson is the communications and events director for United Way of Olmsted County.