Here we are a few days short of one of my favorite holidays: Thanksgiving. Growing up we did not celebrate Thanksgiving. It was only after moving to the United States that I adopted it as one of “my” holidays. This date was not going to go unnoticed like some many other holidays that are easily flipped in our calendars. For me Thanksgiving is not so much about remembering and honoring the country’s past but to focus on all the opportunities in my life which I am thankful for. Expressing my gratitude is indeed a speedy way to find inner peace and to remain humble -- connected to the fact that much of what I have achieved in my life is due to the fact that I have received so much. I practice gratitude often but on this special occasion I write about it.
My days are filled with dog’s antics and adventures and then…I get to help others with their own dogs, their dogs’ antics and their adventures so it comes to no surprise that at the top of my list I feel much gratitude for the dogs that have enriched my life. As I was thinking of the specifics I wanted to move away from the clichés of "dogs live in the moment," they are loyal, alwaaays there for you… etc. etc. Not that these things are not true or worth considering, yet I wanted to address what dogs have given me what I need to be thankful for in a big way.
Last week Laika got very sick. She had been having bouts of throwing up bile. Her regular vet and I came up with a plan that we thought would help her out. Things appeared to improve for a while and then… she threw up and this time it was not only bile but also blood. Off we go rushing her to the emergency clinic…remember? These things never happen when your regular vet is open. Three different vet visits in just two days resulted in some relief for Laika and a lot of head scratching for vets. Sunday we went to see a specialist. All the time I am thinking that we must get to the bottom of this and that at the end it will be benign, easy to resolve once and for all. After all, Laika is not that old! After all we must have more precious years with her. This is the ONE thing I don’t like about our dogs: their fast maturity and short lives.
It has now been a week of Laika feeling much better: she is more active and she is eating, she is playing with Deuce and Louie and has gone back to patrolling their play; making sure it does not get too loud, too rowdy… thank you Sergeant Kelp, (one of her many nicknames) but I really don’t need your help managing these boys, they are doing just fine.
One day out of mere curiosity I counted the dogs that I have had in my life- say my personal dogs. I quickly got to the count of 20- this was before Deuce so I am now at 21 wow!! And I am not that old! For only 3 years and 3 months I have been dogless in my life… that truly amazes me. This many dogs means also so many goodbyes, so many tear & jerk moments like the one where Laika managed to lock herself in the small guest bathroom. When John and I arrived home I could instantly tell by Deuce’s demeanor that there was something wrong. Once more, Laika was not receiving us at the front door… Laika where are you? Laaiikaaa… nothing! Searching, searching. We go outside; nothing. The fencing (which was the first improvement made prior to moving to our new place) and that keeps our dogs free to roam yet safe is intact. Yet no Laika. Finally I go to the smallish bathroom and there she is! Half asleep, half wondering why we keep calling her when she cannot come to join us. Ah instant relief! Ah… let me count the ways… let me count the ways in how much dogs have taught me, how much they have given me. At the top of my list is loyalty.
I have made an unspoken promise to my dogs that I would strive my best to always be loyal to them. Notice that I said: strive and always. This is important because when we strive we keep on trying - no matter what, we might fail but we still try again and again. The always is connected to the promise thing. It is my promise, a promise that needs to be taken into consideration with every choice I make for them, when I need to bravely face the facts that at some point (and many times during our lives together) their needs collide with my needs, and that I must take a step back and consider.
I am so thankful that for now and on this particular Thanksgiving I will not have to make that difficult decision of considering Laika’s physical wellbeing above my own needs. So thankful that she is back to her normal goofy-self, back to basking in the sun and chasing, playing and eating, and thankful that my love for her requires me to practice loyalty. Loyalty: a tall order. An amazing thing to give one’s friends.
I am still counting the ways… but for now, I will stick to how my dogs have required that I practice loyalty -that I keep it real with them… and if you ask me, it is not a bad start for a Thanksgiving list…
My days are filled with dog’s antics and adventures and then…I get to help others with their own dogs, their dogs’ antics and their adventures so it comes to no surprise that at the top of my list I feel much gratitude for the dogs that have enriched my life. As I was thinking of the specifics I wanted to move away from the clichés of "dogs live in the moment," they are loyal, alwaaays there for you… etc. etc. Not that these things are not true or worth considering, yet I wanted to address what dogs have given me what I need to be thankful for in a big way.
Last week Laika got very sick. She had been having bouts of throwing up bile. Her regular vet and I came up with a plan that we thought would help her out. Things appeared to improve for a while and then… she threw up and this time it was not only bile but also blood. Off we go rushing her to the emergency clinic…remember? These things never happen when your regular vet is open. Three different vet visits in just two days resulted in some relief for Laika and a lot of head scratching for vets. Sunday we went to see a specialist. All the time I am thinking that we must get to the bottom of this and that at the end it will be benign, easy to resolve once and for all. After all, Laika is not that old! After all we must have more precious years with her. This is the ONE thing I don’t like about our dogs: their fast maturity and short lives.
It has now been a week of Laika feeling much better: she is more active and she is eating, she is playing with Deuce and Louie and has gone back to patrolling their play; making sure it does not get too loud, too rowdy… thank you Sergeant Kelp, (one of her many nicknames) but I really don’t need your help managing these boys, they are doing just fine.
One day out of mere curiosity I counted the dogs that I have had in my life- say my personal dogs. I quickly got to the count of 20- this was before Deuce so I am now at 21 wow!! And I am not that old! For only 3 years and 3 months I have been dogless in my life… that truly amazes me. This many dogs means also so many goodbyes, so many tear & jerk moments like the one where Laika managed to lock herself in the small guest bathroom. When John and I arrived home I could instantly tell by Deuce’s demeanor that there was something wrong. Once more, Laika was not receiving us at the front door… Laika where are you? Laaiikaaa… nothing! Searching, searching. We go outside; nothing. The fencing (which was the first improvement made prior to moving to our new place) and that keeps our dogs free to roam yet safe is intact. Yet no Laika. Finally I go to the smallish bathroom and there she is! Half asleep, half wondering why we keep calling her when she cannot come to join us. Ah instant relief! Ah… let me count the ways… let me count the ways in how much dogs have taught me, how much they have given me. At the top of my list is loyalty.
I have made an unspoken promise to my dogs that I would strive my best to always be loyal to them. Notice that I said: strive and always. This is important because when we strive we keep on trying - no matter what, we might fail but we still try again and again. The always is connected to the promise thing. It is my promise, a promise that needs to be taken into consideration with every choice I make for them, when I need to bravely face the facts that at some point (and many times during our lives together) their needs collide with my needs, and that I must take a step back and consider.
I am so thankful that for now and on this particular Thanksgiving I will not have to make that difficult decision of considering Laika’s physical wellbeing above my own needs. So thankful that she is back to her normal goofy-self, back to basking in the sun and chasing, playing and eating, and thankful that my love for her requires me to practice loyalty. Loyalty: a tall order. An amazing thing to give one’s friends.
I am still counting the ways… but for now, I will stick to how my dogs have required that I practice loyalty -that I keep it real with them… and if you ask me, it is not a bad start for a Thanksgiving list…
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