The Obama puppy is coming — can you feel the excitement!? Obama promised his daughters a puppy and said the new dog would arrive in the White House “by April” — yes, that’s soon! The country, no, the planet, is focused on the presidential puppy. NBC Nightly News did a completely news-free segment about it. So many questions: what kind will it be? What will it be named? And how CUTE will the little doggy be? (That’s the big one, inspiring NBC to include a segment about presidential pets through history. Did you know Roosevelt was buried with his dog Falla?)

When I went out shopping I asked for opinions. At the overpriced health food store, the clerk. a young woman with a distracted air, evinced not a lick of interest in the little pup. She said, “I don’t usually keep up with….” and couldn’t bring herself to even address the topic.

“The news?” I asked.

“No, I get my fair share of the news, just not…” — her voice drenched in disdain — “the presidential puppy.” She kind of put a damper on things.

Not discouraged, I also asked at my next stop, the overpriced regular grocery store. The three clerks standing around with few customers hadn’t heard much about the new arrival. But the main clerk, a young, kind of chubby guy with an earring, explained that he’s more of a cat person.

I assured him that the Obama puppy would be so cute and lovably adorable that it would essentially be cat-like. “Oh, that’s cool,” he said, with an agreeable nod.

My last stop was a large discount shopping store, the one whose name we should never say. (It’s an obscene place in many ways — but it’s the only one with decent prices.) It’s not a good place to make light-hearted queries about the Obama puppy. It’s in the middle of Appalachia, and the people were struggling even before the downturn. References to Obama’s puppy aren’t appropriate.

When I checked out, my clerk was a fiftyish white woman who was clearly tired. It was about 10 PM. “They got you working the late shift,” I said.

“I do every night,” she said, explaining that she works two jobs. We got to talking and she explained that she works 14 and a half hours every day, Monday through Friday, and a five and half hour shift on Saturday. Why, I asked — and I apologized if the question was too personal — why do you need to work two jobs?

She explained that since she left her husband, he bought him out on his share of their house, and now her house payment is $800 a month. She lives alone, but she helps support her kids and grandkids. I noted that it will be nice when she finally owns the house. Yes, she said, “I think it’ll be the only thing I’ll be able to leave my kids,” and she wondered if they would fight over it after she was gone. A lot of families do, I said, and she agreed.

Toward the end of checking out my groceries, she was talking about spending time with her grandkids. It’s great, she said, because she gets to see her grandkids all the time, and gets to help them out. Well then, I said, it’s all worth it. “Yes it is,” she said, without a trace of doubt.