I’m still learning from my dogs.
Our dog, Annabelle Beagle is one of the most sane beings on the planet. She has only kindness in her eyes. I have never seen malice—not a drop. I saw a little bit of alpha dog once when we got a new rescue dog, but that was only her leadership coming into focus.
She barked at the new dog in our home to let him know that he had to eat of a certain plate (not hers) and drink out of the new water dish. She was just setting boundaries.
Annabelle is sane not just because she is kind but because she sleeps a lot.
I think eight hours a night and six hours a day can help you become a sane, balanced, tempered.
So now, when I get tired during the day, I lie down or rest and close my eyes.
Annabelle is kind to all strangers. She knows they have walls up, so she greets them with a tail wag and smile and offers to let you pet her. She knows exactly how to bring the walls of your heart down so that you will open up to her.
Short Memory
Annabelle does have feelings and her feelings can get hurt. But she is blessed with a short memory. So when I get irritated that she has to be let out in the middle of the night or that she wants 2nds or 3rds on lunch by 11:00 in the morning, she forgets my irritation, thankfully.
Annabelle lives in the moment.
She loves, she eats, she goes to the bathroom, and she sniffs. It seems sniffing the ground outside brings her into the moment better than anything (except bacon). She loves her walks around town or the parks.
One last thing. Since we live in the cold north now, Annabelle especially loves to dress up in cute clothing.
Our friend let us borrow a costume to put on Annabelle for Halloween. It’s a lady bug costume. It offers warmth too. On Halloween day, we drove to a busy street and walked Annabelle. The people passing in cars opened their windows, let out a smile, laughed, gave us the thumbs up. They all went from knuckles on steering wheel beeping, to smiling at Annabelle and us.
It was my 15 minutes of fame being associated with Annabelle who enjoyed the attention while she transformed people’s lives.
She was living her purpose.
I felt good about assisting.
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