By Rebecca Yee-Peters
There are many reasons I love my dogs. Many... like I could write a whole book about it. Oh, wait! I do! They just give me such a lively spirit and make me happy. Anyway... this post isn't about me. This post is going to give you some life lessons from my dog Thor.
We adopted Thor on April 4th, 2015 from the Tuscarawas County Humane Society. He has been the most amazing addition to our family. He has been an amazing little brother to Pookie and an awesome fur kid. He teaches me new things almost every day and makes me laugh while doing it. So, I thought I would share the 4 life lessons that I have learned from him.
1.) Stare your goals dead on and chase them. With traveling comes new environments. With new environments come new critters. Thor has discovered lizards. He really wants to chase them and I believe, let's just say "play" with them. We were on our walk the other day and a little bigger lizard was right on our path. He wasn't budging. Almost like he was daring Thor to chase him. Thor stared him down. Was long enough for me to get my camera out. I was very intrigued by what he was going to do. He walked a little closer then jumped and ran after it. The lizard was smart enough to take off running. But the thing that I learned from Thor is not to be afraid of your goals. We all have them and we are all not sure what to do next. Thor tells us if you want something bad enough you have to go after it. It may take you a while to catch it, but when you do, you will be glad you tried.
2.) Don't be afraid to be yourself. Thor has many quirks. He has discovered that laying on the back of the couch is now one of his things. It's a little weird, but if he wants to lay there and sleep or look out of the window, who am I to tell him he can't? He isn't hurting anyone. He is just being himself. That is another lesson he has taught me. Why should you be anything other than yourself? God didn't make you to be exactly like someone else. He made you to be you. Flaws and all. Thor is a shelter dog, and our belief is he was abused in some way before he came to us. So he has this one thing that he freaks out when you touch his feet. He especially freaks out if he is sleeping. That is him, we know he has that issue, and the only thing we can do is assure him that he is ok and let him be him. Again, he isn't hurting anyone. He is just expressing himself the only way he knows how. So be yourself. No matter what.
3.) Sometimes waiting is the hardest part. Thor loves his daddy. He cannot wait until he gets home. He sometimes hears other trucks in the area and gets excited thinking Eric is home. He will run to the door and wait. Sometimes he is disappointed because it wasn't him, but sometimes he gets to do his happy dance when he sees his daddy walk in the door. The life lesson I take from that is, that we don't always get what we want when we want it. Waiting for something can be so very hard because we want it now. When we are disappointed when we don't get it right then and there, we feel like it's never going to happen. But when it does... we can do our happy dance. Just be patient, not everything worth having is easy to get.
4. Be compassionate. Pookie had recently been going through some treatments to help flush her liver. She didn't always like it and was scared. Thor would come over and lay by her while I was giving the treatment. This is one of the sweetest things I have ever seen. And it brings me to the last life lesson, being compassionate. Life is hard. There is no other way to say that. We all have problems, we all have concerns, we all have stresses and worries and things going on in our life. Why do we need to make it harder on ourselves and others by being mean or inconsiderate? Doesn't that just bring your stress level up? I am not going to lie. I have a little road rage. I don't do anything stupid, but it really irks me when someone else does something stupid and I get frustrated. Or when someone is having a bad day and takes it out on the cashier at the grocery. Everyone is fighting their own battle. Be compassionate when you really want to lash out. What if you are the only one that smiles and says "have a good day" to that cashier? What if she is there working while her mom is in the hospital fighting for her life? What if she has just gotten a phone call from the doctor saying she has cancer? We do not know everyone's circumstances. We need to love one another and be compassionate, because what if we are the only ones in someones life that is? Take care of one another.