There are some folk who don't see the gem inside my rough exterior who might consider me a hot head. To which I say a hearty "bite me". But let this opinion be a caution that within this blog may lurk items of a venting nature or perhaps those which might be considered a rant. So be it. Proceed with caution. You have been warned.

Thursday, July 20, 2017

Life Happens

Sometimes life's curve balls get the best of you for a while. But if you just keep doing whatever is next a sort of equilibrium emerges. With all good intentions of making 2016 a renewed year of rants and random wisdom, time got away and then my life's companion, best friend and wife was taken from me and paralysis and loss of motivation ensued. Now a sort of different "normal" is taking shape and this medium offers an outlet for what will now be the musings of an aging widower struggling through his remaining years in the company of a sometimes cantankerous dachshund.

Previously I've had things to say about dog rescue and adoption and when last I expressed myself here I had recently lost a longtime dachshund friend to Intervertebral Disc Disease. Having lived with these little long dogs most of my life I couldn't be long without one, so I soon found a handsome fellow in foster care after rescue in North Carolina. Transport was soon arranged to Iowa where he met his new roommates. His name was Pablo. Finding this slightly inappropriate for a dog with a strong Germanic heritage I decided to name him after a heroic figure from German opera, Siegfried.

One never really knows what a dog's life may have been like before he comes to his forever home and Siegfried seemed to have come from a place where humans were not entirely to be trusted. Siegi was very wary of human hands, especially if they were holding any object. Although he never bit us, he let us know by way of snarls and snaps that he needed patience and time to learn there was no danger here. To shorten what could be a long story, the point is that a dog will learn to trust where there is love. Two years later he shares my bed, sits next to me in my recliner, nuzzles my hand for comforting strokes and wants to accompany me wherever I go. When my wife passed away, he was a real comfort seeming to know our lives had changed forever and that it was his job to take care of me.

Having witnessed too often potential adopters who give up in the early days with a new dog, my plea is to give a rescue dog time. All any dog really wants is to please the one who treats it with love and kindness. And, as I have said elsewhere, rescue dogs seem to know when they have been saved from unpleasant circumstances and will make a companion second to none.  Adopt, don't shop!


No comments: