It's a Dog's Life

I've mentioned our lazy lab Dutch in previous posts. He's my 'baby.' The Man gets up first in the mornings, Dutch follows him out of the bedroom, and The Man closes the bedroom door behind him so that I can sleep a bit longer. The Man makes coffee and lets Dutch outside. For the next hour or so, Dutch paces in front of the bedroom door waiting for me to get up. He can't stand it when I'm still in bed. Around 5am, The Man awakens me, has my coffee ready (he doesn't trust my motor skills to pour my own coffee first thing in the morning.) Dutch gets so excited to see me and proceeds to 'follow me from the front' to the living room. He gets in front of me and walks backwards as I'm walking forward. He cracks me up.

Once I'm up and enjoying my coffee, he'll lay at my feet and is content, until he notices one of his toys lying around and then he'll throw it at me so that I'll play with him. Nine times out of ten, that makes me spill hot coffee down the front of me. Did I mention I don't function well first thing in the morning?

Around 6am, I get up and make breakfast for the three of us. I put food in Dutch's bowl, and make oatmeal and eggs for The Man and me. I clean up the mess, get into the shower and then go to my half bath off of our bedroom to finish getting ready. Dutch tries to follow me in there and lay at my feet, but I have to chase him out because there just isn't room for the two of us. So, he usually lays outside the door looking at me the entire time.

When I get home from work, he is waiting at the top of the stairs with a look of relief on his face. He gets so excited to see me and immediately runs for a toy to bring to me. He's good at sharing. :) Once he's fed and let outside, he is content again and all is well with the world. Then, The Man gets home and the dance starts all over again. He greets The Man with a toy, wags his tail and breathes really hard, as if to say, "Where have you been all of my life?"

Imagine if we humans greeted one another with that same love and affection. There would be no wars, no arguing, no petty disagreements. Maybe we could learn something from our pets. Just throw your frienemy a toy and ask them to play and maybe you could put your disagreements aside. Thanks for the life lesson, Dutch! ;)