dog talk

I'll always remember this period, the one immediately after my years at the farmette, as my time of really learning about dogs. It's fascinating to me that though I had dogs for a good chunk of my life, I knew too little about them. Oh sure, I bought the dog books, I read them. I trained, fed them, took them to the vet, walked them, and yet they were a shadow to my life. My focus was on the kids, on my work. If my dogs had problems, I wasn't going to spend time digging deeply to get to the root of their troubles.

It's only when you accept the responsibility of caring for a dog with serious challenges that you get to really dive deeply into their inner soul and start to think about what makes them tick and what causes systems failure, so that they make poor choices, destroying the fabric of your life with them. Without that understanding, of course, you cannot hope to help them. And so I have spoken with countless people about my two dogs, Henry and Sadey. Experts, lay people. I've read so much, and talked and listened, and watched Henry and now Sadey in ways that I never watched a dog before. And when I see other dogs, I can pick up things I would have missed in the past. Late in life lessons that I wish I did not have to learn. I wish so many dogs were not in need of special care and handling because of those internal mechanisms that cause them such trouble.

But would have I taken Henry or even Sadey had I known? Probably not. I had the time, the patience, I freed up some resources, and yet I couldn't help Henry. That failure stays with you. I dont really blame myself, but the experience was so heart wrenching that deliberately signing up for it would not have been my first choice.

And yet, having Henry was one of the best, most important experiences in my life.

And Sadey? Well, I'm more gray haired and somber about the whole thing. I know she needs a lot. What she does not need is a person who is broken up about failing Henry.

Still, here she is, ready to roll with the day. A very cold day it is too!

I cant have my usual breakfast because I have a doc's visit that requires no food. So it's a short training session and off to doggie daycare for her.

I spend a while at the daycare, talking to the director about Sadey, and what is the best possible future for her. We come up with a plan. There's a lot of waiting and more talking ahead of me.

On to the doc, then home for a very late breakfast...

 

 

 

... and then more conversations, emails, all about dogs, about Sadey, and finally a lunch at Tati's. With a friend. When was the last time I had lunch with a friend? Oh.... maybe in May? And from there -- off to pick up the kids.

The talk in the car is of dogs of course. Theirs is a simple line, with obvious outcomes: dog means love, love means happy dog (eventually, anyway), happy dog means happy home. Their idea for me and Sadey is for us to keep on truckin' and cross fingers that things will get better. That would have been my idea too, as little as six months ago. 

The conversation shifts to a video character. Or two. A name comes up that makes Sparrow and Snowdrop guffaw. I ask -- who is that? They tell me -- oh, she's a YouTuber. A what? A youTuber! What's that? Gaga, you don't know what a YouTuber is? Indeed I don't. I do know that YouTube has been deemed a poor choice for Snowdrop, for reasons of stupidity (of the content, not the girl!), but stupid stuff sometimes refuses to go away once implanted in a kid's head, so here they are, laughing away at a Salish -- a name that I myself would have instantly forgotten, but one that apparently is important enough to stick around for these two.

In the evening we pick up Sadey. Dear, dear Sadey. I can tell she is in her high stress mode. Little girl, I'm going to try my damnest to figure out something for you. I just dont know yet what that might be.

 

 

 

with so much love...