Puppy Therapy
After losing our 7 year old “only child”, Dewey, to cancer, we weren’t sure we would ever recover. The thought of another fur baby only made us sad. We just wanted more time with our puppy. We had lost him too soon. We cried a lot. We asked the usual questions.
Time passes and eventually the pain isn’t so fresh. More time passes and you only remember how wonderful it was to have a fur soul mate in your life. Recently we began talking about “maybe” considering a new addition to the family. I even went through the local newspaper classified ads a couple of times to see if there were any puppies available (and didn’t tell my husband.)
Summer and my birthday appear on the horizon. I think how cool to get a puppy for my birthday. I go back to the on line classifieds. Only this time I find an ad for two puppies. As I write down the information, I am taking deep breaths and realizing that I might be changing our lives. Inhale, 1, 2, 3. Exhale, 1, 2, 3. The note with phone number and details about the puppies sits on our kitchen island for a couple of weeks. We walk around it. We throw out thoughts about why its probably a bad idea or that the puppies are probably taken by now. I am humming songs about puppies “how much is that doggy in the window” and “they called it puppy love”. I can’t stop.
I usually do some kind of adventure or activity for my birthday each year and this year went to a three day writing and yoga retreat the weekend before my birthday. I laughingly told my husband as I walked out the door, “don’t forget my puppy”. As I drive away from our home, I have a feeling come over me that Dewey would be happy if we had a new fur baby in our life. It calms me and I am thankful because I know that soon it will be time.
Now three years after losing Dewey, we just welcomed a new fur baby into our lives. Oh yes, there was a puppy at my house when I got home from the retreat. I still can’t believe it myself! Its been ten years since we had a puppy in our house. We have moments of “oh boy, what were we thinking” and then moments of being overwhelmed by his sweetness.
I keep saying that we now have 15 pounds of therapy at our disposal. Seriously, there is research that shows that dogs are good for your health. WebMD, Harvard Health, Huffpost, Psychology Today, and more all share articles about how good dogs are for your health. From keeping you active because you have to exercise them to boosting your mood. Seriously, we laugh all the time at this ball of fur. I even read that dog owners have been found to have lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and experience fewer heart attacks.
Moment by moment we go between feeling blessed, to feeling like we no longer have a life, to embracing our new “therapy” and entertainment. I can feel Dewey at times and he approves of his people being happy again. Puppy love. Is there really anything like it? Unconditional love by a furball.