All I Ever Needed to Know I Learned from my Dog

Yesterday I was fishing around a very large Amoire in the kitchen and I found the above Gingerbread man toy that we had lost track of at Christmastime . Lola was thrilled to see a"new"toy and proceeded to rip it to shreds. It reminded me of Christmas 2006 or rather February of 2007.

My dad had given Lola a grunting rubber chicken with a pompadour hairdo, a cigarette and wearing a wife beater t-shirt. We all laughed hysterically at it. It was truly hideous. The same thing happened to the rubber chicken it ended up somehow under a couch.

In January my dad died and the rubber chicken was forgotten. In February for some reason or another it reappeared and I took it from my dog fearing she would rip apart the last thing my dad gave her. I put it on the counter while he plaintively woofed at it. She really wanted to kill it. I kept it from her for quite awhile until I realized that was just stupid. It was ugly and the reaon my dad bought it was because he wanted her to have the joy of ripping it apart. The moment we laughed I had in my head I didn't need the chicken. So I let her have it and it was pink shreds in minutes.

So what have I learned from Lola?

-It's the people who matter not the stuff they give you.

-It's how people really are, not how they look that matters. Weight, height ,clothes, hair all that stuff doesn't matter in the least. She doesn't notice.

-Sometimes it's ok to be stinky

-Wait for people to show you how they really are before you form an opinion.

- Forgive freely and immediately

-Nap frequently but play hard before you do.

-The wind in your face feels really good

- It's ok to act goofy

- It's ok to growl when you don't want to be humped

However, she is wrong about a few things

-Rolling in dead things

-Chewing on a Bull's Penis

-Unabashed begging

-I will never sniff a butt to say hello

-Eating your own vomit