麻豆传媒

I鈥檓 sitting in my office typing right now and I can鈥檛 help but see down at the large, hairy animal staring into my eyes.

It鈥檚 my 鈥渃o-worker鈥�, Weiss.聽 A big, scruffy, lovable St. Bernard.聽 See, he鈥檚 in my office right now because he thinks he has to be in the room because I have a bag of pretzel crisps on my desk.聽 Problem is, he heard the bag being shifted around I guess and now he鈥檚 right here at my feet.

He isn鈥檛 begging or anything, just pretending like he isn鈥檛 in the room because of some damn snack food.

Oh, wait, now he鈥檚 on his feet and giving me those 鈥淥h, PLEASE Derek!聽 Can鈥檛 you see I鈥檓 wasting away?!?鈥� eyes.聽 Yeah, sorry bud, you stand as high as some children and weigh more than 100 pounds.聽 鈥榃asting away鈥� isn鈥檛 exactly the way I鈥檇 put it.

Of course, he does put on a show.聽 He stands up from the floor he鈥檚 been lounging around on, saunters to the very edge of my desk, and lays his big, jowly-looking head on it, looking about as sympathetic as that infamous poor kid who asks, 鈥楶lease, sir, may I have some more?鈥�

Well, a much hairier version of the kid, but you get what I mean.

Another thing Weiss will do when I get to the office every day is grab his toys.聽 I mean, like ALL of his toys.聽 Like as if I don鈥檛 already understand that they鈥檙e his toys and he can play with them whenever he鈥檚 at the office.聽 Folks, I鈥檓 talking every day with this.聽 EVERY day.聽 At this point, if Weiss didn鈥檛 excitedly grab his red bone or his purple rope, I鈥檇 think there鈥檚 something wrong with him.聽 It鈥檚 how he says hello and how we start our day together.

Takes me back to when I was a dog owner.聽 My last dog was Kola, who passed away just over five years ago.聽 Wow, has that much time already flown by?聽 That鈥檚 nuts.

Kola was a great dog, with a lot of loyalty.聽 That鈥檚 all we ask of our dogs, right?聽 Loyalty.聽 They give us that, we鈥檙e good.聽 Kola was a good companion to my dad.聽 I remember Dad watching curling with his trusty metal container full of peppermints and as soon as he grabbed the container, SHOOM, here comes Kola with the begging.聽 Yep, this dog begged for mints.聽 You know what?聽 She got them, too.聽 After she did, it was a much more pleasant experience getting kisses from her because her breath was so fresh.

Makes me think of the wacky, true-to-them functions that other dogs have done.聽 Bud, my black lab/shepherd cross I had before Kola came into our lives, had a habit of grabbing his water dish when he was really excited and letting it clang on the floor.聽 He also had an uncanny way of knowing exactly when us kids would be getting home from school.聽 We鈥檇 get home, open the back door to the house and there he was.聽 Crazy.

Then there was Heidi, another big St. Bernard we had at home.聽 Heidi was certainly no Weiss in the personality department, but she wasn鈥檛 without her charms either.聽 The problem with her was that we got her when she was an adult and I think too many things had already been trained into her.聽 Some dogs just follow a different path sometimes.聽 It happens.

I read something this week that was interesting.聽 Take a gander yourself and let it breathe with you:聽 鈥淭he capacity for love that makes dogs such rewarding companions has a flip-side:聽 They find it difficult to cope without us.聽 Since we humans programmed this vulnerability, it鈥檚 our responsibility to ensure that our dogs do not suffer as a result.鈥�

That quote is from the late John Bradshaw, an American educator.聽 There鈥檚 something so simple and logical to what he said.聽 Dogs are such, well, 鈥榚asy鈥� creatures for lack of a better term that they get attached to us so quickly and with such hard emotion that it鈥檚 tough to walk away from them.聽 Man鈥檚 best friend, indeed.

Maybe dogs aren鈥檛 your thing and that鈥檚 okay, too.聽 Perhaps a cat has hit that button on your heart.聽 Maybe even a lizard, of some sort?聽 Hey, I鈥檓 not here to judge.聽 Whatever four-legged creature has your heart, consider yourself lucky.

The life of a dog is an easy one.聽 Live each day when it鈥檚 here and make a point to simply forget about the one that just passed.聽 It鈥檚 so easy, isn鈥檛 it?聽 Dogs don鈥檛 have our problems, our bills, our this and our that.聽 When they wake up, it鈥檚 a new day and here for the taking.

If only life was that simple for all of us.

Sometimes I wish I was a dog.

For this week, that鈥檚 been the Ruttle Report.