PUPPY LOVE 11.01.10 by Susan Menahem

puppy
puppy image

PUPPY LOVE


I got a puppy.

I got a puppy because my dog passed away just 9 days shy of his 13th birthday.

I don’t know why this puppy is here, but everybody said that getting him was a good idea. The dog that passed was not just any dog. He truly was one of my best friends. He was smart, affectionate, regal and had a disposition that would make Caesar Milan take notice.

This new puppy has ridiculous looking floppy ears and is entertained for hours by retrieving the same ball over and over. I don’t know if I will ever grow to love him because right now, I’m not even sure I like him. To top it off, I had forgotten how much work a puppy actually is.

The thing is -- it isn’t his fault. He always greets me with a happy face and a wagging tail, he follows me wherever I go and he is so very eager to please me. The problem is, he will never be my old dog. He will never have that prideful majestic stance, he will never play the same games and he will never curl up and fit perfectly into the crook of my leg while watching TV the way my old dog did.

And that was how it was for a while until one day we passed by a huge puddle of water on one of our walks. This little puppy jumped into the puddle and started sloshing around as if he was trying to swim! He likes the water! I suddenly began to think of all of the places I could take him and the fun we could have playing ball in the ocean, swimming in lakes and splashing around in my friends pool!

In that moment something shifted and I figured it out. I wish I could say it was in him but it wasn’t. I needed to forgive him for not being my old dog and open up to the new, albeit different, friendship that was open to us to share. I can never really have with him what I had with my old dog because the ingredients are different. And, that is sad. But, that doesn’t mean I can’t have something special and wonderful in it’s own right.

Every love is different … whether it be that of a lover, a spouse, a partner, a friend or a pet. Some loves are more intense, some more grounded, some more healing and some more predictable. To blame a new potential love for not being exactly as the old love is to stay closed off to possibility and potential. To open up to new love does not mean disloyalty to old love. Rather it can pay homage to a heart that learned how to be open and loving through its previous experiences.

And so, there I was, absorbed in a book when out of nowhere the little puppy came bounding onto my lap with a big blue ball in his mouth. And I was almost surprised but I felt warmth. And it was so nice to feel.