Good Morning Day!
March 31, 2008 | A Pick Me Up
I’m not sure if I mentioned to you before that my house is a mini-zoo in and of itself. My son and I love animals and so we’ve got a little collection going. There’s three birds (two cockatiels in one cage and a lovebird in another), two degus, a chinchilla, a guinea pig, a bearded dragon (definitely the Kung-Fu Master’s pet), and two dogs.
Yep… it’s a lot of animals.
I tend to think of the dogs as medium size dogs; to me a mastiff or a great dane is a BIG dog, what I have is medium compared to them. But, most people react as if my dogs are big dogs. I suppose it’s all about perspective when it comes to size.
We bought our first dog as a puppy. Her mother was part german shepherd part huskie, and her father was part lab part huskie. We just say she’s half shepherd and half huskie - I suppose there must be a bit of lab genes in her, but you couldn’t tell from looking at her. We named her Katrin because we thought it would be funny to have a dog named Cat.
One day, Katrin escaped and spent a whole day wandering our little town only return well and truly pregnant. That’s where Samson came from. Now, Samson doesn’t look (at least at first glance) anything like his mother. In fact, he looks exactly like a golden retriever; unless of course you compare him to a pure golden, then his differences stand out. Needless to say, we’re pretty sure that his dad was a pure breed golden retriever, and I suppose his mom’s lab genes must of found an outlet in him too.
The dogs generally sleep in the Kung Fu Master’s room. The practice started when our house was too small to set up crates for both dogs. If we left them out over night they were Very Bad Dogs, so a solution needed to be found. Wakizashi and I didn’t like the dogs sleeping with us - they were bed hogs - so that left the little Master (well, he was little at the time). He had tons of bed space, the dogs kept him warm, and he liked their company. Years later they still share his room (although they now fight over the bed space and blankets).
Each morning when the Kung Fu Master gets out of bed, he opens his door and the dogs come bounding up from the basement. Their first concern, of course, is going outside. Once bck inside though they do a quick sweep of the house to find any other people who might be home.
Once they find me they begin to hop around and run back and forth and get generally over excited. They lick me and want me to pet them, but then have a hard time sitting still long enough to get said pettings. Every morning is the same thing (unless Wakizashi is home in which case they are even more excited). It’s like, even though they saw me last night before they went to bed, and even though I’ve been here every other morning in the history of their lives, they are still overjoyed - and slightly surprised - to find me in the house.
This has baffled me for years. Don’t you think they would eventually get used to my presence? Through out the day they behave normally, as if I’m just a piece of the furniture (which talks and feeds them, and if they are lucky takes them for walks). But every morning, without fail, I again become the most wonderful discovery.
The other day I was pondering this odd behaviour, and it finally occured to me. What if there’s nothing at all wrong with the dogs. What if the problem is in the way that I look at life?
Maybe it’s not that the dogs are so dumb they are surprised to find that their owner still lives with them each and every morning. Maybe it’s that we have started to take each wonderful new morning for granted. We take each new day, each new breath, and the fact that we get to spend one more day with the people we love for granted.
Maybe my dogs have it right. Maybe each morning should be greeted with overwhelming joy and energy. Maybe we should start each morning with a small (so as not to wake the neighbors) “Yahoo” and jump around for a bit. Maybe, we should act a little more shocked, and pleased, that we get the pleasure of waking up next to our spouse and hugging our children yet again.
You see, it’s finally occurred to me that what the dogs are doing is taking a few minutes to greet the day. They wake up each morning, go pee, and then begin their ritual of saying, “Good Morning Day” just as loudly and happily as they know how. Hmm.. That’s something worth thinking about!
Wow, it turns out that those “Everything I Need to Know I Learned From My Dog” posters were right!
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On April 1st, 2008 at 7:50 am
Suzanne Says:
This is really smart Megan. I encounter and question the exact same response from Pokey each morning. In fact, I’m up before he is today, but am looking forward to the big “surprise!” that greets me. What a great way to wake up to the world. I’m taking notes.
P.S. I’ll be in touch, with ideas for you
, this week…for certain!
On January 10th, 2009 at 8:34 pm
John935 Says:
Very nice site!