the perfect beast…

dogs are god’s greatest gift to man.

i’m no theologist and i don’t pretend to know the certainties of god and man, but i’m pretty damned sure that if there was one creature put on this earth but for the sole benefit and companionship of mankind, it must have been the dog. man at his vilest, most duplicitous or perverse can still be adored by a dog. the homeliest woman or most freakish man need not comb a single hair or put on a clean t shirt to be eagerly met by their canine companion with wide-eyed adoration.

what a great friend a dog is. i’ve had dogs my whole life – my first memory is of a great shaggy english sheepdog named sam. our current companion is a runt basset with seductive bedroom eyes and twisted rickets-legs…my wife and i are dog people. there’s been a few cats along the way (two in particular currently share a house with us), but our dogs have always been a part of our lives.

dogs never ask anything of man but their trust, and maybe that’s why we’ve all had such great human/canine relationships over the years. trust is the greatest gift between two beings – and when you learn to share that trust with a dog…well, that’s just pure unconditional love.

we trusted our current basset with our new baby…we didn’t know how daisy would react to being supplanted as the “favorite” of our family…like most bassets, she’s shown mild irritation in the past, but never outright jealousy or aggression. but it seems daisy’s been enamoured with quinn almost as much as we have. submissively lying her ears back and lowering her head, she’s stolen a few “kisses” from him recently & the kid’s gotten a few slobbery foot baths from an over-eager basset looking to score brownie points with the new addition to the household.

one of the hardest things to go through is lose a beloved dog…the hardest SOB you know can be reduced to tears when recollecting the loss of a canine family member. one of my worst days in the past 10 years was the day we had to let ginny go (a cocker spaniel we adopted from the local spca)…she was frail and we did our best to make her comfortable in her last days, but it was inevitable. i considered it a great honor from god to have been able to have rescued her from whatever misery she may have known before she reached my doorstep, and my life is greater having had her in it.

one of my buddies lost an elderly family dog in the past day or so. i know it’s a tough thing to go through, especially when dogs endure our lives along with us…whatever hardships, trauma – emotional or otherwise – we experience, our dogs will be right there with us, to give us an encouraging look or sniff. when you lose that companion, you just wonder for a second – could i have given them everything they gave to me? could i ever repaid that animal for the love and emotional support i’ve taken from them over the course of their life? and will they ever know how much they meant to us?

i know they do…they know it. because no human is ever capable of the love and trust a dog can show its family. no human can give so freely, or expect so little in return. if you’re a dog owner, do something fun this weekend. give them an hour in the park, or a ride across town. or just 20 minutes on the floor, face in fur, putting up with that ass-breath for just a few moments to show your buddy how much you appreciate them.

~ by bullmuse on October 12, 2007.