18 months ago, my wife and I adopted a dog.
We had gone about eight months with only one canine companion: an overly-emotional golden retriever named Drax. Drax had come into our family as the third dog and had watched both his brothers pass over the rainbow bridge between 2022 and 2024. He was the solo dog for that eight month span and it did not agree with him. He felt lost and anxious. He struggled to go for walks he used to enjoy, frequently jumping nervously and trying to hug us as we tried to leave the house. He needed a friend and he needed a confident leader to follow.
Enter Mia.
Mia was an English cream retriever that was a breeding dog in a rural area a few hours south of our residence. When she was of the age that monetizing her puppies was no longer the optimal option, she was disposed of and taken in by a lady who had a farm in the area. Word got back to us through a mutual friend of this dog who needed a home, and we made the trip to go see her.
She was covered in feces and scrapes. She had been running around the farm with the cows and horses and had essentially no concept of being an “inside dog”. But my wife and I both agreed that this was the dog we needed, and we were the right people for her. We took her home, gave her a bath, and got to work. Potty training a fully-adult dog was quite the experience; we put a string of bells on the doorknob, knowing that when Drax went to stand by the door to let us know he had to potty, his tail would jingle the balls, helping Mia associate the sound with going outside. We had a specific “out” schedule that we never deviated from to help her develop a sense of routine. And we got there in time. But there was more to her development than just not messing up our floors; Mia didn’t have a concept of a “family” in the traditional pet sense of the word. She didn’t sleep on the bed we got her right away. She didn’t climb on the couch very often to sit with us. She took treats from your hand like she was trying to take a finger off.
Each one of these things is so much better now than it was when we got her 18 months ago…
…but it didn’t get better gradually.
Mia’s development was not steady. It took a jump, then plateaued, then took another jump and plateaued. Each time it would take a leap, my wife and I would simultaneously be thrilled for the jump forward and also have to accept the fact that this state could be the final state. Maybe Mia would never really be much of a snuggle buddy and that was ok. Maybe she would forever have the be told “take it nice” when giving her UTI medicine and that was ok. We had no way of knowing if the next step was ever coming. Even in the last three weeks, Mia has taken another step. She climbed up in the bed on her own to snuggle with my wife while she was reading. She laid down on the patio out back and just relaxed, enjoying the weather. She let us sleep in instead of pawing and crying at 615 AM every morning for breakfast. All of these signs are about her increased comfort and trust.
But we never knew if that next step was coming or not. We were completely comfortable with Mia just as she was. We wanted to see her more comfortable and more relaxed, but we knew we were fighting an uphill battle with her history and age, and just getting her to a good (not great) spot was pleasing to us and we knew we’d be giving her the best life we could.
The Buffalo Bills are 4-1 this season. They’re in first place in the AFC East. Also, new head coach Joe Brady has exhibited poor game management skills and the passing defense is atrocious. As we discussed last week in my article, the fact that Brady and defensive coordinator Jim Leonhard are both rookies could naturally lead us to provide them with more developmental leeway than other, more veteran options in those roles may have gotten.
But the truth is that we don’t know when or if that next step is coming.
The only time the Buffalo passing defense has looked competent has been when they played against the team that now literally has the worst EPA per play in the entire National Football League (the Los Angeles Chargers). Brady has already had multiple end-of-half situations where the clock management and play calling were disorganized and inefficient. The Bills passing offense looked out-of-sync against any reasonable pass defense (Rams, Patriots, Chargers) and on fire against passing defenses that have struggles in 2026 (Lions, Texans).
But they’re 4-1 with a mountain of injuries to starters. If qualitatively they’re at a plateau and we’re all waiting with the hope that the next step forward is coming, we can still be pleased with quantitatively where they are. Josh Allen continues to exhibit rare traits that have helped the team overcome unpleasant defensive performances overall. Jeff Rodgers’ special teams units have been well-prepared and strong through five games. The rushing defense, once a deeply concerning problem with consistency under previous head coach Sean McDermott, has been very strong.
And so we look around and think that this is a pretty good dog-I mean, team. And so we’ll just keep waiting and hoping and the good team turns into a great team.
…and that’s the way the cookie crumbles. I’m Bruce Nolan with Buffalo Rumblings. You can find me on Twitter and Instagram @BruceExclusive and look for new episodes of “The Bruce Exclusive” every Thursday on the Rumblings Cast Network — see more in my LinkTree!