The Company You Keep

Mom always warned me about hanging around with the wrong crowd.  I could understand about those junkyard dogs - they played too rough and didn't take anybody's feelings into consideration. You know the sort of just ambush and attack type of personality. And of course then there are those stuck up conformation dogs.  They think they are better than every body else but put them in with the rest of us everyday Spots and Rosies and they pace back and forth never interacting with another dog.  Some of them just sit int the corner. I tried being friendly with a big Champion Great Dane once until he smacked me down with his big paw. I know enough to keep my distance from them.

But my sister, Ruach? Who ever thought she would lead me astray. She's a Service Dog, an Obedience Champion. Why would she lead me down the dark path of - (shudder) stealing boxes of treats in the middle of the night. Oh but she was poetry in motion. The box of milkbones had been sitting on the counter for a week. Aunt Barbara had brought them for us. Ru doesn't go after something right away - that way she lulls mom into forgetting to do something about it (like putting it away). She quietly placed her paws on the counter and grabbed the box in her strong jaws and carried it outside through the dog doors to the backyard.

I danced around Ruach as she held the treasure in her mouth. How would she get into the box? It hadn't been opened yet. I asked if I should get Cherokee because she is really good at getting into things but Ruach shrugged it off. "Nah, Got it covered." She took one paw and tipped up the box and with her teeth ripped the front of the box off and all the bones came tumbling out.  Ruach is just so amazing. I bowed and bounced hoping she would share some of the treasures she had loosed from its prison and glory hallelujah! she shared with me.

Then all of a sudden the light went on inside. Oh no. Mom was up. We went running inside and jumped on the bed but mom knew something was up. Our tails sort of gave us away and Ru wasn't snarling at me to get off the bed the way she usually does. (Should of thought about that.) Mom knew something was up, kept asking what we were up to. Went and checked the garage (thank goodness Ru had enough sense to take the box out to the backyard). Told us "I don't know what you two have done but I'm sure I'll find something outside in the morning."

We stayed in bed until mom fell asleep and then slipped back outside to finish off the bones. Mom found the box in the morning and turned to us and said she expected something like this out of Ru but me, never me. I was letting my older sister influence me to go over to the dark side and would end up in the big black cage like Ruach but then she smiled and said "but for once it looked like the two of you were working together."

We are influenced by the company we keep. Have you ever noticed that a gray day can be changed by talking to someone who feels blessed in their lives even when everything isn't going well. Things are rough out in the human world and it is real easy to just fold in on oneself and go hide in a hole. And if we hang around with people who are critical, without any suggestions for improving the situation or who can't even see the joy in a baby's smile, a kitten's purr or a dog's tail wag then it is real easy to dig that hole deeper and deeper. So every now and then, even though your life may seem to be on a treadmill going nowhere or even worse a spiral going down, jump off and hang out with some people who think their life is blessed even just because they're on the green side of the grave.

There are a lot of things to complain about in life. Dogs stealing treats in the middle of the night could be one of them. But all I could do was laugh as I saw the two of them wagging their tails trying to say with their bodies, "Who us, we didn't do anything. Just go back to sleep. We're here to protect you."

So if things start looking too dark in your life, take a look at the company you're keeping and until then we'll see you around the kennel and remember try to keep all four paws on the ground.