Where's the Funny?

I am currently enjoying, what seems like a rare moment of peace. I am sitting next to a sleeping turtle, and I know that the dog is sleeping in her chair on the other side of the room. This moment, regardless of how short it may be is pure bliss.


I was thinking earlier today about the subhead of my blog, bright lights, big city, hilarious dog. I was thinking about how my blog doesn’t contain a lot of city glamour or hilarity. This will never be a story like Marley and Me. For starters my dog is trained and fairly well behaved, where I didn’t think Marley was well trained, and certainly I couldn’t have lived with that dog. For all of Cadie’s training she stills has her moments. The rain brought a lot of them to the fore over the last two days. I accept that we need rain, in addition to being a lover of animals I am also a gardener, and I value the rain; but Cadie just refuses to get her feet wet. So she steps out of the apartment building and puts the breaks on. She flat out refuses to go anywhere, and stands there, one dainty paw in the air, giving me the kind of dirty look that you usual see 14-year-old girls give their mothers when they catch them dancing to the radio. Cadie might be small, but she is a well-muscled dog, and if she decides that she’s not going somewhere then I can either give in, or I can pull and pull. I usually give in, because I’m afraid of hurting her.

Tonight however, I just couldn’t take it, two, almost three days of pent up dog energy, and cabin fever. I forced that dog out into the misty rain for a good thirty-minute walk. That did the trick. She has been lounging around ever since. Right now she is walking around me, just out of reach, trying to get me to go and snuggle with her on the couch. This is what I was thinking about today. I find this so endearing, and hilarious in it’s way, but it just doesn’t translate into dog hilarity for anyone who doesn’t also own a dog.

Still, even if the joke is only funny to me, I consider this to be another dog miracle, so I think I will go and join her.

It’s not that Unusual

The snow fun continues for good old Cadie, she just can’t wait to get out on the trail after work and get running. She pulls all the way to the park, where she goes cuckoo for her tennis ball. The latest development, it’s not really new, but I’m still so pleased with it that I talk about it as if it were new, is that she will now bring the ball back to me. So there we were, on our 42 foot leash, I threw the ball for her, and she went bounding after it. Of course, because I refused to let go of the leash it meant that I had to run with her, which I think confused her, but she didn’t let it dampen her good time.

Today was also a jogging day, so after a very filling dinner we headed out once again. I love running with Cadie. I was motivated to start running with her for 2 reasons: the first was that as a puppy she had an unbelievable amount of energy, the second is that while I enjoy running, I have a lot of guilt around leaving the house without her. So I did some research, got the right equipment, and now we run together 3 to 4 times a week. I prefer to go after dinner. I live in neighborhood full of very young, posh professionals, who spend a lot of money on their exercise wear, and I find it very intimidating. Also, I’m very out of shape, and by going while the streets are quite I don’t have to get passed by 20 or 30, posh, fit people.

Cadie is the perfect running partner for me. She loves to run, but hates the start of a run, she needs lots of encouragement to get going, but once she’s on the move it’s hard to stop her. Cadie has the energy and the stamina to push right until the end. Me, I’m the total opposite, I have no trouble getting out the door, and tonight, when I got to the halfway point I felt very good, like I could run forever. That feeling didn’t last. 3 minutes later I was completely lacking in motivation, thinking about walking home, and depending on Cadie to get me there. I just find it so funny how well dogs know us. They know when we have fallen asleep on the couch, and need to be woken up; they know when we are running out of energy and need some extra encouragement to meet our goals. I honestly wouldn’t have the motivation to job without Cadie. Dog miracles, they’re everywhere.

I encountered another dog miracle today; at least I think it’s a dog miracle. Or maybe I should think of it as a dog miracle by association. I work with a woman who describes almost everyone she knows as “beautiful”, and at first I thought that she ran in a fabulous social circle, full of fabulous people. But now I think that she is the kind of person who sees beauty in people, instead of seeing their flaws. Not surprisingly, at least not me, she’s another dog person. I think dog people, because they surround themselves with such devoted fans, are able to see so much more beauty in the world than the average person. But then it’s hard to not to see the world’s beauty when you come home to a creature who adores you. I’m convinced that dogs know our flaws and limitations, but love us too much to hold it against us. Dogs will always see “their people” as beautiful no matter what, and I think that it’s wonderful when people can start to process the world in the same way, finding beauty rather than looking for scars. I think that’s two dog miracles in one night.