It's A Dog's Life

Finally! After a hectic day of barn work and exercising my horse (some of my readers know my husband and I have a small farm with horses) I was finally able to consider laying on the sofa for a good movie.

Ice tea in hand I waltzed over to the sofa to find my preferred space already occupied by two big dogs, a beagle mix and two cats lying all comfortable-like as if to say "Okay. What's showing?" As I cook dinner on any given day the dogs will saunter in and sniff the aroma in the kitchen and give me a glance as if to say, "What are WE having for dinner?" This is when they get the command, "Out of the kitchen" which they woefully obey.

Sometimes I think about their life. I get up and the first order of business after coffee is taking them out for their constitution. I often refer to this as "reading them their rights." While out, I feed the horses and put out hay for them (pasture puffs on a year round vacation-another yarn for another spin of words for another time....).

This taken care of we all come inside where they get their feet wiped by me. You would think they would bother to wipe their feet on the rug mat by now! Then of course I "cook" for them--adding a juicy tidbit concoction to their food while praying the little one, Marilyn, will choose to eat rather than sit, guard her food and growl at the other dogs that are paying her no mind whatsoever as they eat their food.

It would be unthinkable for us to leave the house without leaving music on for them to listen to. We do not want them to be bored. My husband prefers to play country and just doesn't believe me when I tell him they really like soft rock and light jazz...

When we come home I am grateful that they leave their creature comforts of recliner, sofa and love seat to greet us at the door. I think this is really thoughtful of them.

Animal lovers will understand why we are the way we are with our animals: they are family. They are loyal and offer the wondrous lesson of unconditional love and non-judgment that would transform a global community.

My favorite coffee cup is one that has a picture of a dog sitting on a chair watching TV, eating chips. His legs are on a hassock and underneath it says: What your dog does when you are not home.

As I said before, our dogs are very thoughtful and it is clear when we get home that they have clean up after themselves and put the empty bags in the garbage.