Love is...Dog

Ahh, February, the shortest month of the year. You blink and the month is over, that's how I feel about it. The color red comes to my mind when this month arrives because of Valentine's Day. I love the color red because it screams vibrancy and love. Valentine's Day, a day we're supposed to express our love for our romantic partner, is sort of a silly day in my opinion. I find that it makes some people feel obligated to prove their love by having to give flowers, chocolate, or whatever to their beloved. Aren't we supposed to do that every day, or at least every other day?

Speaking of obligation. Years ago, before I was married, I had a boyfriend who got me a Valentine's card with a bouquet of flowers. He got them at the last minute. How did I know? Read on. When I opened the envelope, the front of the card read, "Happy Valentine's Day." (So far, so good) However, the inside of the card said, "...to my loving husband." Being pissed off was an understatement. Remember Herman Munster, the way he looked when he was furious? He had smoke blowing out of his ears. That was me. In addition, my eyes threw daggers as I looked at my boyfriend and snarled, "My HUSBAND? You didn't even read the inside of the card before you bought it?"

Of course, my boyfriend gave me some excuse that I didn't hear because I was too enraged. Maybe he didn't even buy the darn card, I thought. Maybe, it was a recycled card that he took from his dad who said to him earlier that evening, "Your mother just gave me this. It's a perfectly good card. I'd hate for it go to waste. Maybe you can make use of it." Thus, it was passed down to me. Oh well, it was a sad day for me because I realized that my boyfriend just got me the card and flowers out of obligation. He didn't put much time into it. Otherwise, he would have read the inside message of the card, don't you think?

Recently, my sister Rowena asked me what I was planning on giving Augustine for Valentine's Day. "Probably nothing," I said, and then added that I didn't expect Augustine to give me anything either. She seemed a little surprised and called us "unconventional". I'll take that as a compliment, I thought. I told Rowena that I had already gotten my Valentine's gift. Out of the blue, Augustine had bought me a box of rum nougats from See's Candies. Rum nougats are my all time favorite chocolate. I was extremely delighted to see the pound of rum nougats waiting for me when I got home from work a while ago. Unfortunately, I polished them off sooner than I wanted but savored each one of them.

Just for the fun of it, I asked my dogs, "Who wants to talk to me about LOVE?" I was sitting in bed with my laptop surrounded by Ripley near my feet, Morpheus against my right leg and Elektra snuggled to my left. Seconds after my question, Ripley got up, ran off the ramp that's wedged against the end of our bed and exited the bedroom. "You've got nothing to say, eh Rip?" I yelled. Maybe she didn't want to talk about love, I thought. She's a dog of little words. Well, there are some people who avoid the subject of love because it makes them uncomfortable to talk about it.

Morpheus, who was lounging, rose from his position and gave me a kiss right on my lips. "Ohh, my boy, you LOVE love? Is that what you're trying to say?" I asked. His tail wagged quicker in response to my question. "Yes, I do," was what he was telling me. I can always count on Morpheus to express his feelings. He's not afraid to talk about love. He's like that cartoon character Pepe Le Pew who is all about l'amour.

"What about you Elektra? You want to tell me something?" I asked. Elektra turned her head towards me, smiled with her tongue slightly hanging out, and gave me a chortle. "You think love is funny? Does it crack you up?" I asked. I could almost hear her saying as her smile widened, "Makes me laugh, mom, and it's fun!" She may have been thinking about her love for squeaky balls especially when she takes one away from Morpheus. It probably makes her laugh when she tricks Morpheus and she ends up with his squeaky ball. What a smart dog, I thought, because love can be funny in a "ha-ha" way, and it's certainly fun when you are in love.

It made me wonder whether dogs can be in love with other dogs as people can be with each other. Hmm...the only dog that I can think of who comes closest to being in love is my sister's dog Bailey, a boston terrier. She's in love with Morpheus. Who can blame her? He's perfect despite his propensity to drool. When Bailey's over my house, I notice that she swoons over him as she watches his every move. She follows him around and tries to get close to him especially when he's napping. When he barks at something, Bailey's immediately at his side barking too...even though she's barking at Elektra. It's bizarre but whenever Morpheus and Elektra are barking at someone or something, Bailey joins them but her bark is directed at Elektra. She and Elektra just clash in personality. Finally, Bailey is always trying to kiss Morpheus, and being a good boy, he puts up with it. If he could roll his eyes each time she kisses him, he would, and you could tell from his expression he's thinking, "Oh, here we go again. But it'll be over soon." It's hilarious to see.

I know that dogs can love, but what does it feel like for them? For me, love feels like sunshine in my heart, warm and expansive. It's a joyous feeling that catches my breath. Is it like that for them too? I wonder.

It's strange to me that love changes over time with people. I've heard from many people who have been with their partner for years that their love has changed. I may be wrong, but when I hear people say that, I assume that there is no longer that breathless, exhilarating sensation that they felt during their first years together. Why does the love between two people change? The answer that I could come up with is we humans allow our daily stresses to become more important than our loved one. Money or lack of it, work or no work, the undesirable behavior that your partner may exhibit, etc. get the attention and priority more than the good attributes that attracted you to your partner in the beginning. Because of where our focus is, the love gradually wanes and transforms into a different love...or no love at all, unfortunately.

However, I notice that the love we have for our dogs just gets stronger. I've never heard a dog owner say, "I don't love Fido the same way I used to when I first got him." What I hear is, "I love Archie so much I don't know what I'll do without him." Boy, I know that feeling. Certainly, it's true for me that my love for my dogs just deepens and intensifies with time. Even if they misbehave or not listen, I tend to let it go and love them regardless. It's odd to me because if Augustine were to do something that didn't please me, I wouldn't let it go immediately, although I'm much better at it now. Now I can let go of my irritation towards him much quicker than before. I can do it in less than five minutes compared to a day. Are we more forgiving with our dogs because they love us so unconditionally that we cannot help but love them in the same way? They do model the unconditional love that we're supposed to have with other human beings.

And, isn't it funny that we never question the love that our dogs have for us? We are secured in the knowing that they love us no matter what. However, with some people we love in our life, we have a tendency to question how they feel about us because we feel their disapproval or judgment. Wouldn't it be wonderful and a relief if we just knew without a doubt that they reciprocated the love we have for them? And, without judgment placed upon us and vice versa? If this were to happen, relationships would be easy and a delight...But, really, we shouldn't care whether people disapprove or judge us anyway. It's your life, live it the way it pleases you.

Since it is Valentine's Day, the most important love that I want to mention is the love for yourself. It doesn't matter whether someone else loves you or not because if you don't love yourself, you will always feel less than you are. Then, the person who does love you can never give or do enough for you because he cannot complete you. It's your responsibility to complete yourself, and you do that by loving yourself. Truly, to love yourself is to love others. Let me clarify. When you love yourself, you take care of your body, emotions and mental well being. When caring about those aspects of yourself, you cannot help but be happy. And, when you are happy, you feel complete. This feeling of completion enables you to love others more readily. Furthermore, your happiness will radiate from you and infect those people around you. Consequently, they will benefit from the happiness and love you emit because they end up getting some too. If you don't believe me, test it out.

Therefore, on this day and the days that are to follow, make it a point to show your love to your partner and more importantly, to yourself. If you can do it for your dog every day, you can do it for yourself and your beloved partner. It just takes practice, and in time, it gets easier. Trust me, I'm doing it myself. Yeah, I know it's easier to love your dog because he is a positive being. But if you give yourself and your partner the love you both deserve on a daily basis, you will witness the enormity of the benefit of your effort.

Love, love your dog. If you don't have one, adopt or save one. It would be a marvelous way to celebrate Valentine's Day because you will find love in having a dog. Finally, I would like to share my definition of love. Love is all healing of any ailments whether it be physical, mental or emotional because it gives relief and allows for the good energy to flow within us. When good energy is streaming without hindrance throughout the body, it can find balance, health and well being. Love is powerful and infectious because not only does it affect us but also the people around us. Love is what we are meant to be just as our dogs are. We have just forgotten but our dogs are our reminder. I am in love with my dogs. They make it easy for me to feel that way. They are the reason I started doing acupuncture on animals. They are the reason I love other dogs and, of course, the reason I started this blog a year ago. Dogs give us relief as we feel their love for us. Dogs give us the love that sometimes we cannot muster for ourselves. Dogs elicit within us happiness just being in their presences. So, for these reasons, I believe that LOVE IS dog. Happy Valentine's Day!

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