WHAT IS A DOG?

Ron Scott

September 9, 2024

They say life can sometimes be a Dog eat Dog world and it can leave us hungry like the Wolf. We can work like a Dog and then we're Dog tired, on the other side of the coin, we can also be a lazy Dog enjoying the Dog days of summer. Many of us like to enjoy some hair of the Dog, making sure not to overdo it, so that we aren't sick as a Dog the next day. We sometimes do silly things if we're double Dog dared to do them and in certain company, we can act like a dirty Dog. When we first fall in love they call it Puppy love, but when we make a Dog's breakfast of a relationship, we can find ourselves in the Dog house. Sometimes in life we don't let sleeping Dogs lay and we end up barking up the wrong tree. In the process of this, we can run into a person who is meaner than a junkyard dog. All of this can turn our lives into a Dog and pony show, causing the tail to wag the Dog and make us scream out Dog darn it. However, every Dog has its day, and even if you can't teach an old Dog new tricks, we all have a chance to be a lucky Dog. With so many phrases involving Dogs used in our daily life, Dogs clearly have a strong significance in all of our lives. Regardless if you have a Dog, have had a Dog or just wonder from time to time who let the Dogs out? Dogs are an ever present part of all our lives, but what is a Dog's true purpose in our lives?

Dogs are everywhere we look and they help us in many ways, even if they are not personally our Dog. If we get lost, a search & rescue Dog will come to our Aid. A police Dog helps to keep our communities safe from crime, and it asks for nothing in return. Many people with disabilities are blessed to have service Dogs to guide them through the obstacles of the world, alert them of a personal oncoming medical emergency or to just support them through the trauma they've experienced in their lives. Dogs really seem to have a way of completing our lives, on many different levels, and for many different people.

Roger Caras knew exactly how dogs complete our lives and worded it perfectly when he said, "Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole."

When we are young children we all want a Puppy, because they are so cute and cuddly. We find out quickly however, that having a Dog is a big responsibility. In the process of raising a puppy we learn a lot about life’s responsibilities, and we find a good place for the food we don't want at the dinner table. We also discover an unbreakable bond, unconditional love and an unwavering loyalty. Over the first year that little Puppy quickly turns into a much larger version of itself physically, but it is still the same cuddly and loving Pup inside. We on the other hand are still just a young Pup, as our Dog has now aged seven years to our one. As the years pass and we grow older into a teenager, and then into adulthood, our Dog is by our side every step of the way. Days when we feel all alone and just want to cry, our Dogs are there to comfort us, giving us cuddles and even licking away the tears as they run down our face. On the days we celebrate the happiness in our lives, our Dogs are even more excited to see us so happy and enjoying life. When we experience loss in our lives, rather it be with relationships or death, we may want to go for a walk to clear our heads or just sit in silence. Our Dogs specialize in walks and in that silent language, they embrace the silence with us. There are times that we need to get stuff off of our chest, but we have no one to confide our feelings and emotions to. Our Dogs are always there to listen and ready to comfort us when we finally break, helping us put the pieces back together of our broken selves in the process. Some days we just want to lay around watching TV eating junk food, and of course our Dogs love to partake in those days the most. We all have our good days and our bad days, but for a Dog everyday is a good day, because they get to spend it with us. A Dog will give you all of itself and even die for you, without expecting anything in return. Perhaps this is why they say, a Dog is a man's best friend.

Josh Billings knew this when he said, “a dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” So I guess we could say that a Dog is love, it's a love that we as humans search our whole lives for, and that's a love with no bounds. We can come close to this with other humans, experiencing true love with our partners and unconditional love with our parents, and/or as parents ourselves with our own children. However, nothing ever seems to compare to the love we receive from a Dog, and why is that?

I think it is because, a Dog shows us how to love in the way our Creator intended for us to love one another. That's why people say, the Creator gave us Dogs to show us true unconditional love. Dogs remind us to be kind, accepting, understanding, patient and above all else loyal. If we look carefully, we can learn from them how to make the world a brighter and better place. Dogs in their own unique way show us the meaning of life, that it's a journey to be enjoyed and not a race to be won. Van Gogh knew this when he stated, "if you don't have a Dog--at least one--there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life."

I think all of this is why one day when our Dogs get grey in the face and they start moving a little slower, we all fear the day that we will have to say good bye to our best friend. We tend to forget that for every year we age, our faithful companion is aging seven fold. For some of us we may say one last goodnight to our loyal friend and not have another good morning with them. Some of us have to make the horrible choice to help end our best friends pain and discomfort in a humane way. With this we doubt ourselves, should we have waited longer or should we have made this choice sooner. Either way, we always wish we could have had them in our lives longer and we feel robbed when our time with them has ended. One of the worst heartaches and emotional turmoil humans can experience in life, is the loss of their Dog. This is because we held true unconditional love, unwavering loyalty and true happiness in our arms; even if for just a short time. We never expected to experience so much from a furry droll machine or to learn so much from them, and then we start to reminisce on everything they taught us. That's when we truly discover what a Dog is, and where the death of our best friend has left a void, the revelation fills our hearts. We realize that a Dog is actually us with four legs, big floppy ears and a big poufy tail. We see that over the time our Dog has spent with us in this segment of our life's journey, it was actually showing us all the best parts of ourselves. Our Dog was only mirroring our own unconditional love, kindness, understanding, patience, friendmanship and most of all unwavering loyalty.

Even in a Dog's last moments with us, they will comfort us as we begin to experience their loss before they are even gone. They will lick our tears away and cuddle us, to let us know that everything will be alright, even if they won't be here physically. A dog's last day with us, is really the only bad day they truly have in their lives; because their time with us is coming to an end. A dog's trip over that rainbow bridge, going back to the place they were gifted to us from, is our best friends last lesson for us in the short time they spent with us. It reminds us that life truly is short, that it's never goodbye, only I'll be seeing you later; and that after the storm there will be a rainbow with a new day to follow.