Dogs Can Whisper Too

About a year ago, my wife and kids started “hounding” me for a new dog. Our previous dog had passed over a year before that. She was a little Maltese that had been around since our kids were little and was a big part of our family. She was given to my daughter as a gift when a family needed to downsize to an apartment. She went on every family trip to my family and my wife’s family in SD. Even though my wife’s dad wouldn’t admit it, he was pretty found of her too.

When she passed, it was in our bed, in the evening and at the end of a 6 week string of my father and law, and both my grandparents on my mom’s side passing. The culmination of all those events made this final one quite a bit more impactful on me. But it wasn’t because I was going to miss all them, which I was, but it was because I felt this huge weight of lack of appreciation for them when they were alive. Sometimes it takes this kind of loss to get someone’s attention. It jacked with me for quite while before I let it go. But I decided there, that I was going to start breathing in the life that relationships offer with much more intention.

However, when the prospect of a new dog started showing up, I was the last one on board. Looking back now, I think I was just afraid of blowing it again with a new dog. Dogs have a non-resistance ability to read people and where we are at in life. Yes, they have so much unconditional love, but if you pay attention, their demeanor can let you know if you are out of whack yourself. I didn’t notice this while I was in weird spots until I was in good spots and started see how much more our dog wanted to be around me and was ecstatic just by me coming home. Once I began recognizing the pattern it helped me considerably to readjust.

With the help of a friend, everyone finally wore me down and in comes Henry. Even as a puppy, Henry is doing a great job of letting me know if I’m cool or not. Almost 70 billion will be spent on the pet industry this year. We humans love our pets a bunch. Many of us treat them better than we treat ourselves. Here is an idea we can all test out. Treat yourself good, learn feel great, and the vibe your pet thrives off of will make them even happier. It’s a win, win.