The One With the "Good Dog"
For Christmas, my boss gave me a book called "The Dogs of Bedlam Farm" by Jon Katz. It's about a writer and his three border collies who move out to a farm to herd sheep and all the adventures they encounter. It's a good book because Katz has a very good understanding of dogs and their relationship with humans. He doesn't really sentimentalize. He recognizes how he contributes to his dogs' poor behavior and how he gives them certain personalities to fill gaps in his own life. It's very interesting.
Yesterday, I really read a chapter that struck a chord with me. It was about Homer, his "good" dog. He originally got interested in dog behavior because of his "problem" dog, Orson, and he was talking about how the good dog gets overlooked because of the problem dog, "ironically, often the most loved, to whom his or her owners are most attached." Sound familiar? Anyway, the chapter is about how his relationship with Homer keeps deteriorating because he's so attached to Orson and his new puppy, Rose. Their personalities are more like his and they have a strong bond that he can't seem to develop with Homer. Homer continues to deteriorate and become even more unhappy until he finally placed him in another home.
As I read this chapter, I kept getting sadder and sadder seeing the similarities between Orson and Muggsy as well as Homer and Chubbs. He discussed how, try as we might, we just can't love our dogs equally, just as we don't love people equally. Every canine relationship we have will be different from the others. However, I started feeling better as I got farther along as Homer was clearly unhappy, and I might be blind, but I don't think Chubbs is. He has his own thing now with therapy work and there are things in his life that make him light up and give me that goofy, what's-coming-next-Momma? look. This morning, as he was lying next to me on the bed, using my boobs as a pillow, I realized that my relationship with Chubbs was just fine, very healthy in fact. I've worked very hard to restore that recently, even putting Muggsy to the side somewhat. That actually needs to change as I'm seeing Muggsy deteriorate a little more. I
f only there was more time in the day... But I can't think about that right now. These are my days off.
Yesterday, I really read a chapter that struck a chord with me. It was about Homer, his "good" dog. He originally got interested in dog behavior because of his "problem" dog, Orson, and he was talking about how the good dog gets overlooked because of the problem dog, "ironically, often the most loved, to whom his or her owners are most attached." Sound familiar? Anyway, the chapter is about how his relationship with Homer keeps deteriorating because he's so attached to Orson and his new puppy, Rose. Their personalities are more like his and they have a strong bond that he can't seem to develop with Homer. Homer continues to deteriorate and become even more unhappy until he finally placed him in another home.
As I read this chapter, I kept getting sadder and sadder seeing the similarities between Orson and Muggsy as well as Homer and Chubbs. He discussed how, try as we might, we just can't love our dogs equally, just as we don't love people equally. Every canine relationship we have will be different from the others. However, I started feeling better as I got farther along as Homer was clearly unhappy, and I might be blind, but I don't think Chubbs is. He has his own thing now with therapy work and there are things in his life that make him light up and give me that goofy, what's-coming-next-Momma? look. This morning, as he was lying next to me on the bed, using my boobs as a pillow, I realized that my relationship with Chubbs was just fine, very healthy in fact. I've worked very hard to restore that recently, even putting Muggsy to the side somewhat. That actually needs to change as I'm seeing Muggsy deteriorate a little more. I
f only there was more time in the day... But I can't think about that right now. These are my days off.
posted by Rachel at
10:21 PM
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