Our Dog

Life Lesson: Learning what we need

The woman I fell in love with, gave my life to, and later became my wife, wanted a dog. I had cats my entire life. She wanted a small poodle. My experience with poodles was a small, jumping jack, constantly irritating. For months, every day when I got home from work, there on the floor was a place mat with a small bowl of water and an empty dish. How could I not agree to have a dog? So we got a small white poodle.

I came across a picture of my wife the other day. With her dog, I have never seen such joy in a picture. She loved that dog. Of course I loved the dog. I didn’t know how to care for a dog any more than any new mother with a new baby, but we managed.

Now, many years and many dogs later, I have her last dog.

This was her dog. The dog chose her. She, the dog, was almost an adult when we got her and had developed a weird personality, probably as a consequence of being raised with many other dogs. She rarely crosses the middle of the room. She crosses under chairs until she gets to her destination. She didn’t bark for two years. She had to teach herself how a dog should act. There are still intermittent issues with the location of her potty area.

But here she is, sitting next to me, keeping me company after her real human mother had to leave us. She is working hard at being a dog, doing what dogs do. She barks when she hears strange noises. She barks at the door, acting as a second doorbell. She barks to wake me up at night when I have a bad dream.

Her favorite time of day is “walk the dog time.” She jumps with excitement when I say “want to go for a walk?” She has her spots to stop and investigate thoroughly to determine what other dogs have visited and left “messages.”

She stops and checks our back trail. She checks it is all OK back there and that there are no dangers creeping up on us. One day she did miss the coyote that was trailing us. A neighbor yelled at me, “COYOTE!!” The coyote was wiley. He had stayed far enough behind us, in the cover of the bushes, that the dog didn't spot him.

It was a good thing. She would have attempted to take on that coyote. She is just a little dog and doesn’t understand that she is far too small to win that fight.

Now that she knows she is a dog, she has a job to do, which is keeping track of everything and protecting her human.

We are both still grieving the loss of her human mother and my wife, but we are bonding and we are very privileged to have each other.

We both have a job to do, to re-enter life together.

Please send me your story. I care.

Sincerely,

Lynn Brooke

© 2023 Our New Chances

Photo credit: © 2023 Rachel Gareau