See Spot Run

Photo op with Hoka . . .

This isn’t an important post.

It’s not about the state of the world, or the hereafter, or the thereafter.

It won’t address questions and answers about mind-boggling subjects, like where did we come from and where are we going. You won’t get any cool research, or famous quotes to live by, not even a hint of life-changing advice.

If you want that stuff this morning, you might want to check out the blog post down the street.

Because, today it’s all about the dogs.

Do you have one?

Perhaps you’d do us the honor of commenting on this blog post and tell us about yours. We’d love that.

***

We’ve always had at least one dog, sometimes two at a time. Here’s a few . . .

We had a black lab named Oreo for several years–named that on account of when she smiled, she looked like an Oreo cookie. She died in 1999. When she became elderly, she sometimes stood in her dog house facing the back wall, barking her head off. We never did figure out why. Maybe it was a stress reliever.

Hmm . . . should I try that?

A couple of years before Oreo died we adopted a full-grown Malamute–named Dok-Dogi–from my brother. Dok-Dogi means “Smart Dog” in Korean.

And when I say full-grown, I mean huge, with a full-grown bark to match. But he was a born entertainer. In the winter after it snowed, he liked to take a run at the downhill slope near our home and slide down on his belly. Oreo just stared when he did that–probably thinking something like darned kid!

And then there was Bear, a Chow and Samoyed mix. She was a puppy when we got her from a co-worker who’d found her on their property. Beautiful dog. An exceptional hunter of anything that moved, and as gentle with her humans as anyone could ask. She developed a tumor in her spleen in 2015 and we had to make the hard decision to put her down. In our area, there’s a mobile vet who offers that service, so one summer day Bear laid across our laps out in the front yard and quietly slipped away as we petted her.

And then . . . drum roll, please!

In 2016, Hoka, the Smartest Dog in the World enters our world stage left. Honestly, she is so intelligent, we’ve thought about making her get a job somewhere and supporting us. Maybe a listener at a sonar station with those ears, right? She moved in with us when our daughter moved out of state and couldn’t keep her. Hoka, named after said daughter’s favorite hiking shoe, was a couple of years old or so at that time. It was like a toddler moving in with grams and gramps, let me tell ya. She’s ten now, and we still can’t keep up with her!

She loves chasing mice, squirrels, the neighbor’s cats, and trying to herd our other neighbor’s cows–from our side of the fence, of course.

And she speaks English! She knows words and phrases, like “Time to go”; “Let’s go for a walk”; “Want some food?”; “Get in your crate”; and more.

We take her to see my dad three times a week at his assisted living facility. She’s always the hit of the party when we walk into the building, and she knows it. Many of the folks who live there just want to touch her–she’s a healer for sure.

And my dad probably wouldn’t open the door and let us in if we went without her. He loves her and thinks she’s the best thing on planet earth.

***

Dogs are what humans should be–loyal, playful, trusting.

What a world it’d be if we could just learn life from them.

Please comment and share with us about your favorite pets, be they dogs, cats, horses, or parakeets. What would life be without them?