<An OCD Former Detective Learns to Love a Dog: My Thoughts on “Mr. Monk and the Dog”

Dogs have a way of weaseling their way even into the most unlikely of hearts. That’s the lesson of my favorite episode of one of my favorite shows, “Monk.” For those of you that don’t know, “Monk” is a TV show on the USA Network about a former detective turned consultant for the San Francisco Police Department. His OCD actually helps him solve cases, because he’s so thorough and he finds evidence in murder cases that other detectives miss. I would think that this character is one of those unlikely to fall for a dog.

In this great and touching episode (naturally about a dog!), Monk who is played to perfection by Tony Shalhoub is called in when a woman disappears suspiciously. As he searches for evidence, the woman’s dog follows him everywhere. His assistant Natalie suggests that he should take the dog named Shelby so that she doesn’t end up in the shelter. After realizing that she might eventually get put down, he reluctantly agrees.

When Monk first takes Shelby home, he takes her on a tour of the place and tells her all the places he doesn’t want her to go and all the things he doesn’t want her to touch. But as time passes, he softens toward her so that Natalie and his friends tease him because he’s starting to love the dog. They joke and call Shelby his “girlfriend” because he becomes so affectionate toward her and he lights up whenever he talks about her. 

Later that day when Monk arrives home, the girl who was watching Shelby for him tells him, “She wasn’t hungry.” That night he starts obsessing (that’s the “O” of OCD) because the dog seems to have become lethargic. At first he thinks it’s because Shelby has realized that her “owner is gone and isn’t coming back,” as Monk had tried to explain to her. But just to be sure he calls the vet. He explains all the symptoms and the vet happily tells him that Shelby is pregnant and in labor right now.

After the puppies arrive, he realizes that he can’t keep the puppies because of his OCD but he doesn’t want to separate them. He reluctantly lets Shelby and her puppies go to a new home that has lots of acreage and a loving family with a child.

If you know anything about me, you know that dog stories especially tug at my heartstrings. I love that in this episode you see Monk light up and lighten up. He takes Shelby for walks, plays fetch, buys her special treats and even talks to her like she’s a real member of his family.

I don’t have OCD, but I can identify a little bit with the character of Monk. I admit I can be a little bit of a neat freak and a hoarder especially when it comes to my back room and my dog tree. Every time my mom and I see a little stuffed dog or a dog-themed ornament that we could add to the tree, we have to get it. Our tree is so full now with 177 decorations that you can’t see any Christmas lights or hardly the tree!Take a look at this pic of my updated dog tree and tell me what you think. I might be just a little OCD. My Mom and I love it so much, we keep it up all year round.

So my Mom can be a little OCD about dog hair in the house too. But as we learn in this episode of Monk, sometimes a dog like Shelby or my Sunny can just weasel its way into your heart, can’t she?