Best Friends To watch them, you would know that they were best of friends. The gentle nature in which the younger one romps, fights, chews, tugs and runs is the sweetest thing to witness to the amused observer. The way the older one waits, watches, plans, attacks, and submits to the playful gestures of one half his age beacons the realization that they too have emotions and thought processes and compassion. They are in separable, always together, eating side by side, sleeping back against back with one another. Together they protect their feline counterpart.
No jealousy between the three, just pure happiness and joy of living in the moment and being with the one they love, each other. Each day starts the same, a stretch, a wag and a check to make sure the old guy is awake and ready for the day. These two are the ying and yang of a happy pack. Totally different personalities, yet the same sweet sense of family and love that they inhibit and exude to one another and to others. Harmony at it’s best, hours and hours of hanging out waiting for their human to return, only to settle and just be with that person for no apparent reason other than comfort for all. It’s the way they nuzzle up to you, as if they are asking permission to be petted, to be loved, to be talked to. It’s the soulful eyes that tell a story of wonderment and love that erupts with the slightest of words into a joyful dance of just pure happiness. The tender moments of slow methodical touching, cold noses on an arm, the warm touch of their tongue as if they are asking if you are ok. Life is ok as long as you are by their side, and vice versa.
They keep watch over you, as if they are your guardian angel. Some laugh at this notion, while others know it all to well. Some will ask themselves and already know, “Where would I be if it were not for my dog?”, they bring the calmness to a stormy day. Just as we comfort them on thunderous days that scare and shake their existence of security. They have a way about them that not only melts the heart, but constructs a smile across even the sternest of stone faces in the time of chaos. The strongest relationships are built on trust and respect, and they yearn for nothing more that to trust in their companion. From that trust is respect and love. What one gives the other receives two fold. Side by side with one another, living in that exact moment in harmony. This is the life of a dog, the life of life with a dog, or dogs. This is a dog’s being, this is a dog’s grace, love and passion. They live for these moments, for that moment, they hold no hard feelings if you are silent, they will beg for more and more until you have forgotten why you were silent in the first place. If you are sad, they will sit quietly by your side without movement until you feel their comfort and offer a pat on their head for just being there. They know, they feel they sense, they are smart, it’s us that need to be more aware of these simple aspects of life to be totally present in the exact moment to know what all we actually do have, and that is what is right in front of us with each breath. A dog can remember, can think, yet knows no anxiety of tomorrow. A dog is definitely Man’s best friend.
The LabShepCrew 