Dogs Are People Too — The dogs I have loved and lost
If you have ever lived with a dog, this is a no-brainer for you. You know with absolute certainty that dogs have personalities and emotions the same as humans. If you are a scientist, it has taken you a little longer to accept this conclusion. Like maybe a century. Up until recently, most scientists who study these things have believed that dogs reacted to events around them, but were incapable of feeling the human emotions of love, jealousy, animosity, joy.
Listen up, all of you scientists out there who took so long to begrudgingly admit that dogs have distinct personalities and are capable of feeling and expressing emotions the way humans do. Let me tell you about the quirky personalities and loving natures of the dogs who have blessed me with their presence in my life.
Since neither my husband nor I were allowed to have a dog growing up, because both of our mothers had chanted the same mantra -” If we get a dog, I’ll be the one who has to take care of it”, we welcomed a dog into our home as soon as we moved into an apartment complex that allowed them.
HONEY
We knew nothing about Rescues, so we did what any young clueless couple who never had dogs would do. We went to a pet store and bought with our hearts, not our heads. We fell in love with the thick, soft, cuddly fur and beautiful face of a Dutch Keeshond puppy, a breed we had never heard of and about which we knew nothing. It didn’t matter to us. One cuddle of that heavy, soft fur, and we were goners. $350 goners, which was a lot of money to spend on a dog in 1973.
I am going to give us credit for reading up on the Dutch Keeshond breed and how to train a dog. Sure, it was after we had purchased her and brought her home, but at least we were open to learning.
The first odd quirk we noticed about Honey was that she was apparently jealous of our sex life. I guess. What else would account for her throwing herself against the closed bedroom door when she heard sounds that she may have interpreted as rambunctious play in which she was missing out? Or when she was in the bedroom with us…
