This Dog is Special

There are those times, maybe you've noticed, when your focus gets drawn to something, for some reason, you realize, it's important, but you can't specifically put your finger on why? You realize something is there, but you aren't capable of defining it unless you go outside the normal senses, it's a feeling? During these times your mind goes into a mode where you will remember this, sometimes folks mention this zone in sports, in job interviews, in marriage ceremonies, when they meet "the one," who is special in their life; that's the feeling, and you have probably had it?

As Debbie, my wife and partner for 20 something years at that time, drove up that day, she had a look on her face I will remember; and she said: "honey before you go off, I had no choice," now I don't normally have a whole lot to say about things outside the realm of doctoral studies or politics or serious soul matters, so I wasn't thinking much of what it might be, but she went on, "it was $150.00 and I really had to do this, you should have seen her." Now I'm in full curiosity naturally wondering whom? Turned out the who was actually a dog, and Debbie had discovered her at the plant where she worked, someone had dropped her off, she looked like she had the mange [1] or some skin disease, but, the vet, for the bucks had explained to Debbie that the dog was healthy, it wasn't the mange. Debbie then wondered, as anyone would, what is it? The vet could only guess, but his guess was that she had been mistreated. The dog wouldn't come near a human, she kept her head down, her tail down, and when I first saw her, in a pen with two other friendly dogs, at one of our friends house, my first thought was, "this poor animal has really been kicked around." I had no reason to think that, but it was my first thought. We had her given a series of shots, and also thoroughly checked out, turned out someone had also shot her in the ear with a bee bee gun.

The dog was so "gun shy" that it was pitiful. She couldn't fit in with the other dogs, they ate her food and pushed her around, so we moved her to another pen of dogs, on the chance that perhaps they'd take to her, but no such luck. We don't have a fenced yard as these people did, so our choice was now made for us. We discussed it and the only thing that came to my mind was, "if we are going to keep this dog," ('cause usually folks around these parts won't keep an older dog, especially one which isn't pretty at all, and at this point, she was really lookin' near death, taking her back to the vet made it certain) "then we are going to have to really do everything in our power to see to it that she has a better go of it." I wanted to make up for whatever hell she came out of. That's something that a person who has experienced some pain feels, more than makes sense, and in my life, there's been some pain, if you look at your life, there's a good chance you've felt some also; this dog had been there, her every movement showed it.

For the next five weeks we just tried to get her to let us pet her, every time we'd come near her, she'd shrivel back, hunker down, and shy away. She wanted nothing to do with a human. A friend of mine who has been abused said this is what the feeling is, that is can happen again, that it hurts, that it shouldn't, and that you don't want to get "it" again. A man without sense had abused her, he'd not hit her, but he'd destroyed her pride, and if she'd not gotten away, he'd no doubt have totally wrecked her. She said that "Mopsey," which is what Debbie said she looked like, "a mop", was going through those times in her mind. Of course we don't know for certain, we're looking at how she was acting, and we are making all sorts of assumptions; but her explanation seemed as likely as any other, all we knew was, Mopsey wasn't comfortable with us. But she was eating and drinking, so we felt like she might come around. It's right here that we were missing something critical, have you spotted it? It wasn't Mopsey who needed to come around.

Someone had said that if you faced a dog and then, gently extended the back of your hand to him or her, that they would know you weren't threatening. With Mopsey it didn't matter, just as soon as we got within a few feet of her, out came that behavior, so we'd use a quiet gentle voice, bring some food, bring out the water, but we did keep her on a leash, not knowing but what she might run off somewhere, and we didn't want that, as we weren't sure how safe she might be health wise. Now we are into the sixth week, and so we gently keep approaching her, I notice that she is now looking at us, she is still tail tucked between the legs, but for the first time that week, she raised her head. And I knew then, we were going to be successful. It was one of those moments. There would be others, but this one, it etched into my mind, for it was here, that eye contact, and the moment, when the realization dawned on me that this dog is special.

To every person who loves their pet, whether it be dog or cat, or any other pet, there does come a moment when something occurs that tells you this is going to work, you are going to be able to relate. It seems to me that's what this moment is about, relationship, and it seems to me, Mopsey spelled ours out, what do you think? It seems to me that relationships get "spelled out" in moments such as these, and it seems to me that we remember those moments, would you agree?

[1] http://www.peteducation.com/article.cfm?cls=2&cat=1589&articleid=764