Which dog do you think I am going to discuss here? You likely know it’s not Dora – the quasi -feral wonder terrier. Even though yes, she very quickly learned a down when I realized it had never been a taught skill!
Yen – the 7 year Toy American Eskimo who was in 5 homes by the time she was 5 months old? She’s amazing. She’s spectacular in fact, but normal is not the first word I’d use to describe her. Or anything about her.
Sampson – our 10-year-old golden retriever? A recovering separation anxiety dog, a resource guarder with developing noise sensitivities? He’s an amazing dog and I’m glad he’s in our life but the term normal does not come to mind for him either.
Well. That leaves Sally. And, particularly if you’ve read this blog since it’s early days you know Sally is a pretty special kind of normal. So special in fact I am pretty sure you couldn’t characterize it as normal.
Which means …..
We don’t have a normal dog here. Or we have 4 normal dogs here. You pick. But each one is different from the other- and different from other dogs in our lives. They have different passions, obsessions and interests and are their own unique selves. Each one loves time with us – to play, or train, or both. That line, I’ll remind you, is blurry here. Work/play/work/play.
It’s the journey that fills us here. We are all individuals. With our own baggage, our own skills and talents.
We embrace the normal we are offered. We figure out, as best as we can how to make it work for us. Just the way we like it. Because the humans around here may not fit your definition of normal either.
