Dogs and people
I am convinced that dogs and people are involved in much more of a symbiotic relationship than we might think. Of course, if you’re not one of the tribe of Dog People, the whole topic must seem weird to you from the start. I’ll try to explain.
Most people look at the dog-man relationship as one way, as one of subservience, as dog being taken care of by man. But it also goes the other way. Back in the earliest days of barely domesticated wolf-dogs, man benefited from the presence of dogs. Besides the obvious watchdog and even guard dog functions, dogs also provided companionship, meal scrap clean-up and a hunting partner.
Even today, dogs still gain from the relationship, but man gains as well, especially with certain ones. In the life of every Dog Person is one special dog, that one dog among many that touches the heart in a special way.
There’s a relationship that is hard to explain, but it is best described by love. Not just the love of a pet, but the love of another living being that is trying to understand and please you just as hard as you are trying to understand and share life with it. It’s not simply a pet-and-owner relationship. It’s more.
That’s why, several years after her death from cancer at age 3, I still miss my chocolate lab terribly. She provided something in my life that was missing, and remains missing today. It is a hole in my life. I am not embarrassed to admit it.