lessons learned from animals

I was walking my new siberian puppy who is now twelve weeks old when he tried to take off after a rabbit in our back yard. He isn’t very big yet so I didn’t have a tight grip on the leash and it slid right through my hands and trailed after the scandalous dog in hot pursuit of the startled rabbit. After about five minutes of yellling and chasing I finally caught up to him and what I found was a muddy mess. There was hardly a spot on that puppy that wasn’t covered with dirt and burrs. At first I was angry and sternly scolded him, giving him a light tap on his posterior, only to be stopped by that adorable puppy whimper acompanied with those bulging brown eyes that would make any person wonder why they were mad in the first place. Not even a minute later he was licking my face and wanting to be petted. That’s when it hit me. I realized that no matter how mean we are or how bad our day is going, animals love us anyway. They are there for support when it feels like no other human being in the world cares how we feel. Everytime I feel down or out it seems like that little husky knows and an instinct tells him to come over and let me know he is there, whether by licking me or brushing up against me. Animals are great listeners. They may not be able to talk verbally in our language to us, but sometimes I can just sense that my dog understands exactly what I am saying when I see that special look he gets in his eyes. Animals are more than pets, they are our friends for life. I have owned countless animals and every single one of them has had a very special place in my heart. I am now newly married and have found that I have either lost contact with or simply am not around the people I used to consider my best friends but I know that at the end of the day when I get home from work or school a little puppy named Titan will be waiting on me ready for a big game of fetch and anxious to see me. These reasons and many more are why this dog is not simply my friend, he is my best friend.

Brandi Cook