"My dog Sammie" or "She's Going to Be Okay"

I was going to write this morning about the theories about global consciousness. I thought about writing about a few things actually, but I feel the need to write about my dog, Sammie Sprinkles (full proper name). Sammie is small Chocolate Lab of 2 years old. She's only 53 pounds, and is a lean ball of energy. She has a great temperament, is wonderful with little kids, loves to practice training but only follow through with it at home if its convenient for her, loves frisbees, looks to sit atop the couch and look out the window like a cat, and wiggles her butt excessively when you get home. I have never had a dog before and I feel blessed this is our first one.

The other day while we were playing in the yard she started limping on one of her front paws. I thought maybe she jumped off the deck wrong or something, but after a day the limp was still there, so we took her to the vet. It turns out she has dysplasia in her elbow, causing a lot of arthritis. Its something she was genetically predisposed to and there's nothing that could be done about it. I have been told that Labs get this sort of thing. Our options are to manage it with anti-inflammatories, fish oil, glucosamine, and pain killers when and if needed (but hopefully only sparingly if at all). We will do this for her for the rest of her life. Its not bad yet, but eventually it might get bad. She has never actually showed any signs before. I'm kinda glad she started limping so we can start helping her.

My wife was the one that took her to the vet and told me I didn't need to go and meet her after practice and to just go home and do the lawn work I planned on getting done. I now wish I had gone. My wife had Yellow Labs as a kid. One of them, Maggie, had hip dysplasia. Jen always felt really bad for her dog and the pain she was in. Last night, my very lovely and very pregnant wife, was a bit of a crying, balling mess, bless her heart. This information about Sammie combined with her hormones created a lot of sadness and slobbering.

I always had cats that I loved very much. When it was time to put Katie down, I cried all day, at 20 years old. I brought her to the vet with my dad and brother, and we all were crying a lot. We made everyone else in the vet cry. It was a mess.

Its funny how pets can make us feel this way. A small animal, like a cat, who really only needs you for shelter, petting, and food, and wouldn't look back after escaping ( I had a few cats that did this), make us feel important and make us feel happy and complete. We tell them of our problems and want them to sit with us and just be near us.

It could be our need to be close to nature as humans. We are becoming so far removed form nature now, pets may make us feel conned ted somehow. with all of our technology growing and improving at such a rapid rate, the hardware we were born tight, our bodies, may still need a stronger connection to nature. Our old school hardware hasn't evolved at the same rate as technology. I imagine, way back in the day, we had a very loose arrangement with some wolves that allowed both parties to get food, but didn't go much deeper than that. Now we have dogs of all shapes and sizes. We keep all sorts of animals as pets, although most probably hardly notice. Does a snake give a shit if its you or someone else feeding him a dead mouse? Maybe. I wouldn't know.

Currently my dog is pulling out every dead animal pelt she has from her bin of toys. These are the pelts and faces of former toys that looked like other animals. My dog is incredibly sweet, but she keeps an collection of her kills in a box. If something we give her has a face one it, that is the first thing to go. Natural instincts I guess. Even though I know she has some leg issues, I plan on treating her the same for the most part, because she seems to be happy.

I read a story once that went all over Facebook and I'm sure many of you have seen it. Its where a family is sad to be losing their dog and the little boy says he knows why they don't live as long. The more exact quote is as follows.
"He said, "Everybody is born so that they can learn how to live a good life - like loving everybody and being nice, right?" The four-year-old continued, "Well, animals already know how to do that, so they don't have to stay as long."

I know thats really cheesy. I know it. But I like it. I like that sentiment. It has nothing to do with the lessons they are here to teach us (how self centered) or about us placing our religious ideas upon their existence. This little kid summed up the reason for us, humans, being on this planet and in this life AND why we love our pets in a one swoop. We are here as just one step in a  line of transitions we need to make on our consciousness' journey. This step is about learning how to love and act with our fellow man. Our pets know how to act already.... most of them. They don't need our help figuring it out. They aren't put here for us. We keep them around because they remind us of how we wish we could be. We wish we could just care about food, playing, sleeping, and meeting other people. Dogs and cats, in particular, have that shit figured out.

We envy our pets. The bond with them is very real, though. We get sad when they must leave us, but the ideas we have behind their deaths and our own don't line up. If a dog is in pain, sick, sad, and can't live a happy life, we make them comfortable and let them out of this terrible place of pain. If we are old and sick and can't move or do anything, we have people around just keeping us alive with meds and gross food. We sit around watching TV or doing puzzles until our body goes out. Maybe there's more to learn from our pets than just how to live. Maybe we should learn how to transition to our next step gracefully and without fear.

I love my dog very much and I plan on keeping her healthy, safe, and enjoying herself for as long as SHE can. She's a beautiful being with a beautiful spirit and I'm glad I will have a little boy that will get to love her as well.