Now before we get into this, I would like to preface this whole thing by saying this is all coming from a cat lover and owner.
Walking down the busy street after class, having what I remember to be a conversation on a rather difficult or annoying topic with a friend, though at this point I cannot remember what it was about. Why you may ask? Instead of remembering the details about the most likely important at the time conversation, I instead only remember the brief break in attention as we noticed an approaching dog. Immediately stopping our conversation as we both glanced at each other and smiled, promptly asking the owner for the name of the dog and if we could pet them. Upon receiving a very enthusiastic yes and learning the name was “Darcy,” we happily gave lots of pets before parting ways. As we jumped back into conversation almost instantly, it was like it had never even happened. Yet I remember this moment clearly. When bringing up this moment to that very friend the other day when deciding to write this, she too couldn’t even remember what we had been discussing but she did however remember exactly what breed the dog was and everything. An Australian Sheperd if you were wondering, the kind with the two different eye colors.
Never before have I had a moment where I and the person walking with me don’t at the very least happily acknowledge an incoming dog o the street. It is indeed hard to not be even slightly excited to see a fluffy mass coming down the sidewalk at you. Similar to the delight I feel when greeted with this opportunity is the chance encounter you may get to experience if you see a “runaway” running toward you. Once before have I gotten to catch a dog a safely return him to his owner, making for the brief moment I got to feel like a hero. Even though the owner may not have been that far behind, I got to be the one to “capture” the happy puppy and get rewarded with lots of slobbery kisses as I waited for the owner to catch up to us.
Dogs are always there for us even when we may not necessarily need them, like as a stranger on the street. However, they are also there for us at our lowest moments when we may not understand why ourselves. Even if the dog or cat, or any other animal, that brings us the most amount of joy may be our own or a close friend’s pet, you still can understand the joy that animals can bring us. Plus, if you have ever gotten to experience the moment in which you are in fact the person on the street with the dog, you get to see up close just how much joy it can bring others and get a glimpse of what you yourself may look like in this situation. What we don’t see is the moments like these, the simplest parts of our days, where they offer us a happy break from our mundane or serious lives. Sometimes it is in the simple moments of merely seeing or helping a dog that we may run into on our daily walks that grant us a sweet second of childish glee and wonder.
So this is a thank you to all of those little moments and every one of the dogs I have ever gotten the pleasure to meet or even just see. As well as to any cat, bird, reptile, any animal that has ever granted us a kindness by letting us be in their presence.
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