Jan
Posted : 8/18/2006 12:06:13 AM
Sue--
The puppy months (or years, depending on the dog!) are tough, and it's perfectly normal to get frustrated at times. I still remember the night I came home from work late to find that Jessie had torn the arm off my couch and ate it. I mean, it was completely EATEN. I was SO not a happy camper! I'm pretty sure I told her that her I could still boot her furry butt back, to which she smiled and kissed me. I don't think she ever believed that particular threat, though she heard it more than a few times in the early days when she was channeling Cujo.
But it's hard to stay mad at them for long when they look at you with such trust and adoration. And the beautiful thing is, they're puppies for only a short part of their lives, then they calm down and you get to experience the full power of that devotion without the stuff that makes you crazy.
Jess will turn five in October, and I can't help but wonder where the time went. One minute they're chewing up your shoes and bouncing around with too much energy to contain, and you blink and then they're going on five. And over those years I've so often been distracted, days working late, the year I was so sick I spent half my time on the couch and the other half on the bathroom floor, with far too few walks and far too little play time...and yet, you ask my dog, she'll tell you I'm the best human on the planet. And she BELIEVES it. She only remembers the petting, the play time, the classes and beach trips and road trips. She remembers the coming homes, not the going aways, and I think that's just part of what makes dogs so wonderful.
She's so sweet and so generous (which I know sounds like a funny way to describe a dog, but it fits her), and so joyful and full of life...and her love is fierce and wonderful, making me feel so darn lucky to have her.
Which isn't to say there still aren't days when I want to kick her doggie butt. But as they get older, it gets easier, and the bond that you already enjoy so much just keeps getting stronger. I think your relationship with your dog just deepens over time, and non dog people don't get that, but it IS a relationship. You love them, you get mad at them, you forgive them. They drive you crazy. They keep you sane. They center you, and one day you wake up and realize that you've shared a lifetime of love with them, and it's changed you just as it's changed them.
Yes, it's constantly amazing. Love always is. And there really isn't anything quite like a dog's love, is there?
Jan