I’m in a passionate love affair with our dog. Even Jeremy notices that for whatever reason, I just love and adore Elka. I know you aren’t supposed to have a favorite child, but I’ve not ever been so head over heels about an animal before. Elka is not the easiest of all the dogs that we’ve had, nor is she the cleverest, but somehow, she has stolen my heart. I think I’ve easily kissed her more in the past year than I have my husband. I will walk by her and lift her snout to my lips and kiss her 17 times in a row until she reciprocates by licking my lips with her tongue (even though I know she’s recently eaten poop (deer, rabbit, squirrel, other dogs, perhaps a cat) or a rotting mouse carcass) and then I will proceed on with my day. Sometimes I will do this in bed with Elka tucked between Jeremy and me and I’ll shower Elka with kisses and then I will feel bad and scoot over and lift Jeremy’s face to my lips and shower him with the same number of kisses on his snout (nose). And then Jeremy will laugh. I take Elka to the country club dog park and ignore the other human patrons and just watch her run and wrestle and live out her doggie dreams. There is nothing more beautiful that watching her extend her body fully in a straight out sprint full of joy with her doggie friends – her mutt background mixing with all those doodles – golden doodle, lab doodle, irish doodle, bernese doodle – OMG those doodle mixes have no end – and don’t forget about the frenchies. It’s either doodles or frenchies. lol. I know she loves me, but I still think she prefers Jeremy. I think I love her because I want to be like her – relaxed, loves everyone, forgets to pee/poop because she’s too busy playing always full of joy for life. She does have her faults – she’ll forever pee/poop in the house because she doesn’t really care about keeping her living area clean (though no accidents since the Pipster moved out just because it’s easier to keep track of only one dog’s comings/goings), and she destroys things like Uggs or remote controls – but we all have our faults I suppose.
This is the big house renovation weekend – we are moving furniture and ripping out carpet ahead of our big wood floor install next week. In honor of that, I patched my work pants which had a big rip in the knee. I know people love the ripped knee, but it just feels cold to me.
I love my dog so much, too. She is my dog and I am her person and she definitely gets kissed exponentially more than my husband or the cat. I have no idea why we have this relationship, but I am grateful for it every day and will not let anyone talk about her so-called faults in any way. Sure, she’s leash reactive, is scared of men, brooms, rakes, and sudden loud pops, but she walks with me endlessly, always looks to make sure I’m still there, and protects me from all she deems scary. Dogs. Man. They’re the best.