I had the most beautiful experience today. It involves dogs. Dobermans, to be precise, and incredibly well educated ones. Unfortunately, their human had passed away by a heart attack about 10 days ago. Since she was new to town, nobody noticed, and 7 days passed without anyone noticing her missing. When she was found, the dogs were almost starved and very dehydrated. A friend of mine took them into care until the established waiting period for them to be claimed passes. And she grew a little desperate with those beautiful creatures because they didn’t understand each other – the former human was Swiss, from the German speaking part.
In comes the German speaking dog fanatic.
She called me to see if they reacted to German commands, as they had incredibly training and certification, including search and rescue. And if you read my post yesterday, I can absolutely use some doggie attention. Oh my, are they cute! Super skinny, yes, after 7 days without food, but so full of love. And yes, they are incredibly well educated.
They met me for the first time, and obeyed.
I mean, not like my Raya obeys me (still, after not living with me for years). But that’s because Raya lived with me for years, and grew to know my every movement, tone and indication. Those two just met me. Smelled me for the first time, saw me, heard me, and obviously tasted me for the first time – what dog doesn’t love to gently slobber over humans?
Right commands, right reaction.
I was able to have them sit down, stay, lay down, and have Merlin let go of the Toronja (Grapefruit I think?) from his mouth – not a risk free task, and not very careful from my side. You don’t reach into the mouth of a dog that you just met. But I had a feeling that he’d be fine with it. And he was, consequently also very happy as I threw the grapefruit for him to fetch. My friend told me that she didn’t have any toys when the dogs arrived the day before, she threw a grapefruit to play with them. I mean, they do look like tennis balls. Just taste slightly different, which doesn’t seem to bother the dogs.
So they started harvesting.
The dogs, I mean. They're big enough to pick them from the tree. By now the courtyard is full of grapefruit that have clearly gone through dog mouths. Which I hope is good for them, some Vitamin C can’t hurt after that severe undernutrition. My friend’s daughter made some videos, which I cut together, as you can see above.
Why the power of dog?
Because this experience reminds me once again that both humans and dogs are results of circumstances. How they grow up. What they experience. I wasn’t able to command the dogs to stay put when the food was taken out, as they had been starving for 7 days straight. They swallowed the food whole, without chewing. That will be normal again. My friend said they wouldn’t enter the crates for the love of God. They had arrived in Ecuador 2 months ago, coming from Switzerland, which means at least 24h in the crates, straight, probably badly sedated. It’ll take time to re-train them.
As it does for humans.
Some have the luck to be aware of that. Being the result of their experiences, that is. Others are not. They are vicious, and always will be, like whoever wrote that psalm down thought dogs to be. They can’t break out because they don’t know that they’re trapped in the first place. Some dogs can’t be trained. Some humans can’t improve. I learned that the hard way, and still I’m paying the price, and so is my daughter. And I hope that I, and maybe even Lily, that we’ll have learned that lesson.
Take them as they are.
Don’t hope for people to stop being vicious, cruel, self-absorbed, egocentric, and so on. Learn their qualities and deficits, weigh them against each other, and determine if that person can add joy to your life, or if it will extract it. The decide what to do with them. Friends, partners, co-workers, pals, avoided, ignored, disliked. That should be the end of it. If you add enemy to that list, you might want to check your own ego.
Acceptance brings peace.
Even when having to deal with them, as in my case. Jumping through all the hoops, being separated from my daughter for over 6 months, more than 1 month without contact – I wholeheartedly dislike Lily’s mom. But I don’t hate her, nor do I have any rage against her. Against the legal system, yes. The injustice, yes. But her? No. She’s the personification of the power of dog.
But not these two.
Merlin and Ivory are the best. The absolute best. Yes, better than your dogs. Not better than Raya, but close behind. I would so love to adopt them. Maybe I should... Just need to rent a new house. I mean, they're already trained... And that is the positive power of dogs. They make you smile. And laugh. And love.
Thank you for reading!
P.S.: When you move to a new country (or any place, actually), please make sure that the first thing you do is get an emergency contact that checks on you. Especially when your're not 20 anymore. Might save your dogs from starving when you drop dead unexpectedly.
