Love Me Love My Dog
Why are we so partial to our pets? My friend Harvey (no, he's not a six foot rabbit) travels a lot and takes his dog everywhere. He once pulled up to a hotel and was told the dog was not welcome. He said he'd pay extra for any extra work housekeeping might have to do but the answer was still "No." So he turned on his heel and split to another hotel that was more pet friendly.
I have friends who've lost family members including parents, and to a person they say that the loss of their dog was as traumatic as the loss of the family member. There has to be some psychology at work here. One writer put it this way, "He is your friend, your defender, your partner, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader." The reason a dog has so many friends, it has been said, is because he wags his tail instead of his tongue. You can learn a lot from dogs: fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before laying down.
Since people years are different than dog years most of who have had the pleasure of thinking we were it's master have also had the pain and sadness of seeing life flicker and extinguish. Just as he teaches you about life and unconditional love, so does he teach you about grief and loss. Is there a doggy heaven? Author James Thurber summed it up well when he said, "If I have any beliefs about immortality, it is that certain dogs I have known will go to heaven and very, very few persons." Or as Mark Twain summed it up, "Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit you would stay out and your dog would go in.
Andy Rooney once said that the average dog is a nicer person than the average person. No offense to any of the cats I've known, but when I come home tired, exhausted, and having just fought my way through freeway road rage, I want somebody to greet me wagging his tail and ready to lick my face.
Dr. Forgot
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