The Lessons We Can Learn From Our Pets

This post may not be interesting to the people who don’t own pets and even don’t like pets, but for the many of us who have pets who we consider family members, will get this and probably will want to comment. All of us who love our fur babies love to mention our babies and feel welcome to post pictures and stories.

My husband and I have been blessed to have some “humanistic” rescued doggies since we have been together. Our first rescue was Whiskers, a schnauerrier (mix of schnauzer and terrier) and his name was perfect. We didn’t name him as we knew where he came from and he had his name. Here is Whisker’s story:

I was in insurance at the time and called on businesses for supplemental health insurance. My husband, Greg, knew of a auto repair shop, and actually set up the appointment with the owner. I drove over to the shop and the waiting room was full of customers and so I sat down to wait for the owner to discuss him offering his employees some coverage. While I sat there, I happened to notice a rough cardboard sign which read “Free puppy to a good home.” On the floor, there were two bowls, water and dry food. My curiosity was raised so I asked what the sign was about. I learned about Whiskers, who was owned by the shop owner’s neighbor. Whiskers was intrigued by his big Rottweiler, Zeus, and would dig out from his yard and visit Zeus. One day, they noticed a big moving truck in front of Whisker’s home early as he left for work and was shocked that afternoon they had completely moved out but left Whiskers in the yard with a handmade note saying “Please find Whiskers a good home.”

When I heard his story, my heart went out to Whiskers as I could only imagine him wondering where his little girl had gone as they usually played outside. I am not going to express the anger I felt from his abandonment. The guy who owned the business I was calling on brought Whiskers over to his house which seemed fine with Whiskers but Zeus, while accepting Whiskers as a visitor, was jealous of Whiskers as a potential resident. Here is where I felt a confused and almost angry response. Thinking Zeus might harm Whiskers, he decided to take Whiskers away and drove him 9 miles and put him out on the side of the road. Oh, I had to fight the inclination to be verbally loud at that moment of the story. What was incredible was Whiskers walked back the entire 9 miles to the only place he knew, he came back. This created the owner to take him to the shop and see if he could find Whiskers a good home. Now, here I enter the story. Greg and I had discussed having a dog as we are both dog lovers. What I want to interject at this time, I had not seen Whiskers and Greg was working.

As I listened to the story, my heart tugged. He, after telling me of the history, asked me would I like to see him? At the very second he asked me, he opened the door next to me and out came Whiskers. He was wagging his tail, looking around with excitement at him being let out to investigate all of us waiting. He went around the room, stopping with old people, young people, every race, every size, with the same amount of enthusiasm and friendliness. He didn’t judge or make a sound, but worked the room until he came to me. Our eyes met and he just knew. He sat down in front of me and waited. When I reached my hand down to his head, he let out a squeal, not a bark. Again, he knew he had a new owner, a new family, and he never looked back. We went out to my car after I had called Greg who didn’t have a clue what he looked like or anything else but immediately said, “Yes, bring him home.”

I am going to stop the story as we were so blessed and I have millions of stories of how smart he was and how much he meant to us. We both sigh at the memory of Whiskers who had seizures which was probably the reason he was abandoned, but not for long, as we had the blessing of the cute dog that chose us for a good life. The lesson from Whiskers is to never give up as happiness is a wag away if you keep finding your happiness.

• Dogs accept their owners without any judgment of looks, wealth, personalities. If you are having a bad hair day, they are fine with it.
• Dogs forgive easily. It may be that their memory span is shorter than humans. Maybe humans need to forget and forgive.
• Dogs don’t need a lot of toys or entertainment sources to keep them happy and if you look around, dogs that are owned by poor families are usually as content as dogs who live in luxury.
• Dogs will protect their families if threatened, to the death if necessary without thinking whether that is a good idea. It is a natural instinct.
• A dog loves unconditionally and fully. A picture that breaks my heart is to see a dog that has been abandoned, with or without food or water, wait patiently or try to run after their owner’s vehicle. It doesn’t seem feasible in their mind they won’t come back for them.

I thought our love of animals who capture our hearts would be a good focus instead of all the serious and tragic events going on in our world. I will post some of the stories that make our memory bank full of the laughter filled moments and the emotional tugs. Whiskers lived 9 1/2 years which is great for a dog who had seizures since before we got him but if he could have talked, he would tell you he had a happy life full of adventure with us.

(C) Copyright 2012-2021 Arline Miller of Sipping Cups of Inspiration with all rights and privileges reserved. Third party material, if source is known, is referenced to original author/location for credit reference.