The Love of a Pet

I have always been an animal lover.  I have always grown up with an animal.  All that changed when I moved to London.  I could have brought my cat over to England but he would have had to stay in quaratine for 6 months.  That would have been SUPER expensive (no surprise in the UK) and not a quality of life I wanted to give him.  He's healthy (lost a few pounds since being with his new family) and happy with the family I nannied for.  He has 3 people to love on him, plus a few dogs to keep under control.  He's living the life these days.   My dad is kind enough to email me photos of him from time to time.  Great to know he's doing so well.

Meko at my old apartment. 

In January we decided to get a dog.  She's a chocolate show type cocker spaniel.  Her names Josephine and she's a delightful creature.  Dave has never owned an animal.  That was something we talked about often while dating.  Animals are amazing in my eyes and bring joy to the whole family.   He knew eventually he would have to get one because before we have kids it's a requirement (we're not planning on kids for a few more years).  I grew up with cats, dogs and a hamster.  You learn responsibiliy and unconditional love.  Come on, who doesn't love coming home to see an animal aways happy to see you.  Even after the longest, hardest and worst day of your life, your animal (especially a dog) is beyond happy you're their owner.  (as I'm writing this blog I have a cute little puppy in my lap = happy puppy and happy owner)

There's a reason the phrase 'man's best friend' was given to a dog.  A dog always loves it's owner.  From the day you get the dog to the day it dies, he'll love you always.  It's hard to even compare this kind of love with anything else.  As humans we don't always have unconditional love.  Children eventually lose the unconditional love they have when they're young.  A dog never does (unless you beat it).  At times I think of God's unconditional love He has for us.  Not like a dog's love because God's love is so much deeper.  Even if we make a wrong turn, forget to think of God and His ways or completely turn from Him if we repent He'll forget all that and start afresh.  On much simpler terms a dog forgets that you were gone for hours and left them alone, forgets that you steped on their foot accidently 2 minutes before or forgot to feed them on time.  They start afresh moments after a situation passes.

I have no doubt God gets excited to see each of us learn more and more of His way of life.  I sure get excited when I learn more.  I also get excited when our sweet Josephine learns new things.  At the moment sitting is a piece of cake.  We're working on shaking, going in a circle, laying, staying out of the kitchen at dinner time and learning to fetch properly.  With daily training she'll have these down in no time.  Then we'll figure out other important things such as leave it to get her trained on.  Just with God you start with small things and then move on to larger things.
Pictures of our sweet Josey Posey.