Why We Love Dogs

     I've been moved recently by the number of dog deaths reported on Facebook. (And with them, the number of deeply comforting messages in reply)
     Unlike most obits, I read dog obits to the end, no matter how long... I get what these people feel and the depths of their loss as they convey it...I've lived that loss. I know that loss.
     I cry at real people funerals too. Lives lived. Loved ones left behind...
     But there is something about the loss of a pet that hits a whole 'nother nerve patch... a different set of synapses entirely go off...
     My rational (read: left brain/linear) mind longs to help in  moments such as these.  (My right brain/creative side arm wrestles back with, "Let her weep. Let her weep. Weeping is good.")
     But as I try to place all these feelings somewhere in the filing cabinets of my mind, well...here's the best I have to offer...
     Even if you're married (biggest life decision a soul will decidedly make) ...Even if you feel good to have chosen your friends...These relationships have conditions (even those you feel are unconditional, have conditions)...For no matter how hard you try, human minds don't forget... won't forget. Even when God blessed us with forgiveness genes, we, are humans,  and we keep score. We recall, remember...(even when trying) we recollect...and at all the inappropriate moments...There's that, "This person hurt me. Yep. I love 'em. But proceed with caution" moment that is wired into our circuitry as a part of our human survival package.

     Not so with dogs. Never so with dogs. (Yes, there is an equal post coming for cats; with cats it is merely a timing thing...But they too, are wired to forgive.)

     Point is, dogs forgive by nature...Or maybe WE accept dogs' forgiveness as a part of OUR nature...(I can't say. I'm pondering this.)

     Never once have I come home (no matter the tattered the item; no matter how pee stained the carpet) and said, "I'll NEVER forget this!" And even if I did react in the moment to one or two such occasions, never has my dog said, "That hurt. That really, REALLY hurt. And I'll remember it and never get past it...Not now. Not ever." (Though in that moment, we each remember the face on that dog...Can we agree?)

     Face it. Dogs don't keep score. Only humans keep score.
     Dogs live to see us happy. (Our mates? Some days yes; some days no. A certain percentage of the time, our mates would love to make a point. I've never once had my dog want to make a point.)

     Dogs LONG to get back to their happy space. Humans? We might just be a lit-tle too familiar with the drama that brought us here, and might (we just might) enjoy it for a second or two a little too long...

      Then again, what do I know?
     You're reading the blog of a woman who's chosen dogs over dudes now for coming up half her life. Must be a reason.
     Best I can answer (and I'm asked often): I have never once dreaded coming home to my dogs, no matter what happened last...No matter who was right or wrong. When it comes to my dogs, they never once think to pick up where we last left off...If anything, their wagging tails indicate they'd just like to be past that last one and back to doing what they do best, which is making us feel better about us every chance they get.

     Their sense of timelessness is God's gift to humans.
   
     Perhaps we should all paws to take note.