Life lessons from dogs

Bella, my terrier, is six years old now.  She's the one on the left with the wacky ear, that was her brother Milo who passed away earlier this year.  We used to nickname her Scrappy because of that crazy ear thing, and her personality is totally that of a little scrapper.  In fact,  I have in mind to write a book about her character.  But I digress ... and by the way her ear doesn't do that much anymore.

The beauty of dogs is that they get total and complete joy out of a very small list of things, and the joy is as intense for them on the 6000th time as it was on the 1st.  Take walks for instance - every single time I get the leash out and prepare to get her hooked up for a walk, her exuberance is off.the.charts.  She never, ever ever ever (you get the point) gets tired of it, and she never will.  Something so simply joyful as a walk outside, smelling and peeing and pulling on the leash like she's a sled dog in the frozen tundra hauling me across the ice, can provide this little crazy canine with enough joy to turn her into a verbalizing maniac.  She NEVER makes as many or as much noise as when I'm trying to get her leashed up and ready to go.   It's completely hysterical and I wish I could video her.

Dogs have very simple needs - food, water, exercise and love.  That's it.  They don't care about things, money, competing, racism, winning, their weight (or yours for that matter), they have no ulterior motives or hidden agendas, they adore you when you think you're at your worst (including loving the smell of your worst morning dragon breath) and they live for one thing - to see and be with you.

As humans we think we are superior because we have opposable thumbs and deductive reasoning, we walk upright and can drive a car.  None of which, in my opinion, make us superior - that simply makes us human.  With all of our "superiority" we are killing each other off, destroying our planet, wracking up more debt than we'll ever pay off in our lifetime and spreading un-curable diseases like wildfire, with new ones popping up regularly.  So who exactly is the superior one between humans and dogs?

Bella's constant joy at seeing me, being fed, getting treats and going for a walk teaches me so much about letting go of stuff that doesn't matter.  Her unbridled excitement at the beginning of each new day, with absolutely no left over resentments or baggage from the day before, is endlessly fascinating to me.   Humans hold onto everything, we torture ourselves over and over, continually reliving every painful moment - animals don't do that to themselves.  The minute after you've hurt them, stepped on their tail, or scolded them for chewing your panties (at least she doesn't chew up my bras or shoes anymore), they've forgiven you and themselves.  That doesn't mean their spirits can't be broken, I have also seen that happen and it literally weighs on my soul.  But the readiness of a dog to forgive with a head rub, a dog treat and a sincerely uttered "good dog", is a powerful reminder (to me anyway) of the gifts of not being so complicated.  They let go of the past, they are happy, full of joy and they sleep ... well, like themselves.  And going outside to, gasp,  run & play(aka exercise, something we humans seem to dread doing) brings out a puppy-like enthusiasm no matter how old they get.

Yep, I think dogs have it pretty much figured out, I am a huge fan.  :-)