It’s been a while and as I was sipping on my morning coffee I realized that if I’m not going to exercise I at least ought to immortalize myself. Because if I don’t exercise, I’m certainly not going to be immortal…
So I decided to jot down a few words of sage wisdom and advice for my ancestors and the nosy public.
Today I was thinking about pets. I watched our lazy dog meander into the backyard to find me and on the way she stopped to munch on a cicada that was spinning around upside down on the sidewalk. I don’t have any personal experience, but apparently cicadas are delicious.
I’ve often thought that should the concept of reincarnation be valid, I would like to come back as my dog. I do realize that might require some kind of multidimensional, parallel universe, nonlinear timeline kind of thinking, but so does reincarnation. So I’m waiting…
In the meantime I have to marvel at the way our domesticated animals have domesticated us. I am a well-trained servant to the dog. All she has to do is look at me and I know what she wants and I immediately deliver a bowl of food. Or a T-R-E-A-T. (By the way, even when I spelled that out on the keyboard she looked up at me and headed for the sunroom where we keep them stashed. This dog is smart!)
As I think about it, I realize she has several important responsibilities. Her primary duty appears to be package delivery alert system. UPS, FedEx, and Amazon trigger her barking response. She usually doesn’t get up. She just raises her head to identify the truck and barks a few times.
A secondary responsibility is canine or child intruder alert. Not to the house, but down the street. Yeah, a kid on a bicycle or baby in a stroller or any kind of canine being walked down the cul-de-sac elicits a more violent response. And by violent response I mean she actually will get up and bark. Not too actively mind you, but she will at least be in a vertical versus horizontal position for some of the barking!
Her third responsibility is to make sure that we don’t have too sedentary of a lifestyle. She tells me when it’s time to get up in the morning, and two or three times in the evening she will prod me to get up and give her one of the aforementioned items that start with the T and end with a T..
However she’s extraordinarily lovable, and though she will often not lift her head, she will always give us a tail thump on the floor when we walk into the room!
She truly has been one of the smartest, loving and devoted dogs I have ever encountered. She is a valued and treasured member of our family and will always be so!
Family Education 