Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Every dog has its day...


I don't do pets. If it were not for the insistence of my son we would not even have the low maintenance tortoise, Crawler that we have. House pets gross me out- the smell, the fur...etc. But there was a time I was recently reminded of when I did love a dog. It seems almost inconceivable now. Ginger was our family mutt during my whole childhood. She was a small reddish dog, intelligent, loyal and loving. She stayed out back. Over the years she was , eventually a bit neglected, but when she was suddenly gone it was surprising how keenly I felt the loss. She just wasn't there anymore. I took for granted how she tailed us to the bus in the morning. Or how she would happily bound around us as we played in the backyard. You could talk to her and she acted like she knew exactly what you were saying.She was that constant source of love that everyone forgot about because it was there all the time, in the yard, big brown eyes, patient and wise with age. Ginger watched all of us grow up and forget about her. Then, one time when we had all left on a family trip, and we had left her in the care of a neighbor, she left and never returned. I wonder if she knew she was dying, or got hit by a car, or thought we had finally abandoned her...I don't know. Years have gone by and I rarely think of her. Then this summer, on the beach there was this sweet, friendly, "undisgusting" dog. I was amazed at how satisfying it felt to cuddle and stroke this dog...I thought of Ginger fondly. I wondered why we take unconditional love for granted. Why do we forget to give it back? I don't know. Now, to this day I can't abide the thought of ever owning a dog...is it partly because I know, deep down I can't give it what it wants from me? Maybe. I wonder, because, I didn't always detest dogs...so I ponder what made the change.

6 comments:

Maribel said...

I wonder how I'll feel when Pepito,our cat, dies. I've noticed that over the years my distaste of owning a pet has increased too. Maybe it's the added responsibility of some"one" else to take care of and worry about and so like you say, maybe it is knowing I will probably neglect it at some point, take its unconditional love for granted, and feeling guilty about it that I'm avoiding. Hmmm.....thanks for the thoughts!

Hey, This is Lisa. said...

I don't blame you for not wanting a dog. Our dog got so annoying that we gave him back. Its worse when they are puppies because until they are trained they leave their messes everywhere. I never let our dog in our house because I worried one day I would find dog fur in my food or something. I probably should feel guilty about giving him up but, I really don't. Maybe that makes me a bad person. I still don't regret it though and its been a peaceful place ever since.

Claremont First Ward said...

When you get the chance, pop on over and pick up your bloggy award.

Kathleen and Stephan Seable said...

Sometimes we can relate to Ginger: unconditional love taken for granted; benignly ignored; the guilt....... (ha,ha, just kidding!)

Mark and Kiss said...

Good ol' Ginger. The boys really want a puppy right now too, but our mantra is "while we still have to change poopy diapers there is no way we'll be scooping poop"!

LilMama said...

I can't really say I understand how you feel ... since I LOVE animals. It's the opposite in our home - we couldn't imagine life without a pet, or 2, or 20! We definitely treat all our animals like members of the family. When one passes on, we grieve like someone in the family is gone. We'll always have animals and pets - always.