Loving Them Like You Do Comes with the Hurting Too

My brain doesn’t know what to tell the rest of me right now. It doesn’t know whether to tell my eyes to cry or my fists to punch holes through a wall. It’s just confused. It’s probably not a scholarly definition, but I think confusion is what happens when sadness and anger mix and neither has the strength to overtake the other, so you just sit staring off in the distance with thoughts circling around in your head.

I’m looking at a photo right now. It’s a fluffy red and white husky giving me a kiss on the forehead. It’s how I’m greeted by hundreds of dogs. It’s how I’ve been greeted by probably thousands in the more than four years I’ve been working my job. It’s my preferred way to be greeted because I know it means the dogs love me, as much as I love them.

This particular dog and her equally loving brother won’t ever greet me this way again. That hurts. They were taken away from us in a tragic manner involving an abundance of stupidity that seems rampant in this world no matter how we strive to rid ourselves of it. I don’t want to get into any particulars, but it’s a manner in which seems to be considered “fair game” in Arkansas.

It’s been a particularly hard time lately for myself and my co-workers having lost so many dogs we dearly cared for via tragedy or plain old age and illness. It’s a reminder that we need to cherish those close to us and tell them how we feel about them on a daily manner. The world could ease up on these reminders a bit, though.

I have at least two co-workers who I hear say “I love you” to each and every dog that boards at my place of work when checking on them for the last time before leaving for the night. It always puts a smile on my face. We have a slogan that can be found on our company website and on some of our clothing that says, “We love them like you do.” I think many company slogans are just marketing tools. This one is true. You can’t be greeted by a doggie kiss to the forehead and not feel it.

I don’t know what else to say at this time. I think that’s because the sadness and the anger are still wrestling each other in my head. All three of my dogs are asleep in my house right now. I think I might just watch them for a while.