It was one of those weeks that seemed to fly by. The never ending list of “to-do’s” made me forget what day it was half the time. I got caught up in work assignments and the usual tasks that we encounter being on the road, like finding a grocery store, doing laundry, and washing dishes outside in the dirt. Yep, we had no hookups at our campground again.
But in all of the week’s commotion, I was such a crazy dog person that even I had to step back and notice the crazy in all of its glory. Some weeks, I try not to be so crazy, I recognize the crazy and I try to temper the crazy. Some weeks, I don’t care. This was one of those weeks.
Life is hard for all of us in different ways. We all have different pressures and stresses. But for those of us that have dogs, we have to recognize that our dogs have no idea why we are so stressed. They don’t know when we leave to go to work where we are going, they only know that we are gone. Our dogs don’t know when we go to buy groceries that we just have to do this! But I make sure to tell them every time I leave where I am going and when I will be back. Was that my craziest confession for the week? Not even close. Everyone does this though. Right?
Nope. Here it goes. Despite having one of the busiest weeks I have had in awhile, I found myself “missing” my dogs…even though they were right by me. I found myself smelling their fur, looking in their eyes, trying to remember every single detail about them. I found myself admiring their paws, their noses, their eyelashes. They were beautiful. How was it possible to miss someone when they were right by me? I was losing it. It was like the more hectic my week got, the more I realized that everything filling my time was taking away time from what and who mattered most to me.
Some may say that I need to go get some help. And if I followed this advice, my help would be to go to a shelter or rescue and get more dogs. Seriously though. There is no help for me. I used to feel guilty about loving my dogs so much. I used to look at other dog owners and see their ability to detach from their dogs when they had other things to do. I used to look at other dog owners who didn’t hurry home because of overwhelming guilt when they had been gone an hour. And I wondered why I couldn’t be more like that. And I used to think that they were the ones who had it together, that they were balanced and I was crazy. I still think that. But in a good way.
Life is not about “to-do” lists, working, and rushing through life. I believe that sometimes we use our lists to not feel emotions as strong as we should. If everyone took a few minutes to “miss their dog” even if their dog was sitting right by them, how much better would your day be?
Love, for me as a dog person is so strong that I can’t imagine life before them, or after them. I think that is why this week I decided to give into the crazy. They may not understand when I tell them I miss them, even though we have been together all day. But I know they will understand how much I love them. And that is my crazy confession for the week. Being crazy in love with my dogs is not such a bad thing. And I confess…if you think it is a bad thing…I don’t care.
-Rachael Johnson, Girl Person, 2 Traveling Dogs
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