My Canine Chariot Ride
Hey, friends.
This past week has been filled with heavy moments. I’ve been heavily holding these heavy moments, which has been not helpful. Then it dawned on me: Let’s lighten up this week’s blog. Great idea!
How?
Look into the past through dog stories, I thought.
I wrote this story more than ten years ago, and the situation it describes took place well before that. Much has changed, and nothing has changed. The Doodles, Lucy, a Born-to-Party-Golden Doodle, and Zac Joe Doodle, one of the deepest souls I have ever met, were my first dogs. They are both gone now, and oh, what teachers and guides they have been.
Living with two rambunctious, young dogs taught me, as a first-time dog companion, so very much. Clearly my animal companions have been some of my greatest teachers.
This story continues to Crack Me Up.
My Doodles.
How I loved my Doodles.
Enjoy our stroll down the Beach Road together.
~~~
We called the new neighbor Mr. Milo, bestowing upon the quiet, anonymous man his dog’s name. The dog and the man not only looked identical, but their presence was perfectly mirrored in the other. Both were contained, delicate and deliberate. Dog was a tidy greyhound who always wore a neat, season-appropriate coat. Man was beyond-white and non-descript, impeccably dressed in anonymous taupe outerwear. On long and delicate legs, together they walked with a deliberate, paced, guarded energy.
Neither showed any affect at all.
My dogs did.
Lucy Doodle, the charismatic blond leader of our family and Party Dog Extraordinaire was the most expressive being I have ever met. She walked on her leash on my right, generally disheveled in appearance, reacting to life with “big energy”, as we would fondly say, in our better moments. Zac Joe Doodle, the silly supporting man on my left, was always game to get on board the newest adventure. He was the full-hearted, fully-available follower. I walked in the middle, with a wary and cautious eye to the world, always looking for that bunny around the next tree, waiting in seductive stillness. My dogs were neither contained, delicate nor deliberate. They pulled and danced against the leash, walking, prancing and playing with great, wild abandon.
I was younger then, committed to the illusion of control, a life strategy that didn’t work well with the Doodles.
Our general encounters with Milo and Mr. Milo on the dirt roads where we lived were never pretty. Milo the Dog seemed above the canine fray, and the Doodle Fray on my right and left were anxious to insert themselves into Milo’s tidy world. Embarrassed exchanges occurred between the humanoids, Milo the Human, while the canines, seemingly from distinct species, regarded each other with disdain (on Milo’s part) and eager possibility (on the Doodles’). But we always managed to extricate ourselves from any embarrassing tangle of leashes, legs, or barks.
Until The Event.
The Event happened one morning on the Beach Road. All was well in Doodle-Land as we rounded the corner, the last stretch of the road ahead. A walk without incident was always my unconscious goal, to protect the dogs (hence myself) from any variable of life, like a rabbit or dog encounter. I still saw the world as a dangerous place; it was my job to protect the dogs and myself from all variables.
Lucy and Zac did not agree with my perspective. They were eagerly, excitedly, and messily available for life as it occurred.
As we rounded the corner to head home, walking toward us in rhymed content containment was the Milo Family, humanoid and canine. Some invisible energetic switch must have flipped on in Lucy’s brain. Filled up with whatever dog hormones drive one toward instant wackiness, she lunged ahead, with Milo and Mr. as her sole focus. Zac, always ready to follow his sister’s lead, surged on from his left side. The intensity of jerking of both leashes startled me and knocked me down onto my knees. However, I would not be deterred. I held onto the leashes and, dramatically and whole-bodily, literally went down with the Canine Ship.
Think Ben-Hur.
Think a Canine Chariot Ride.
Think Chariot of Fire—a single, human chariot propelled by wacky canine-energy.
The Doodles dragged me across the dirt road, me on my knees, holding the leashes for dear life. We traveled in this terrified, breakneck fashion for perhaps a quarter of a block, time and distance at a standstill. Milo and Mr. stood stock still as we descended upon them, wild dogs with a dazed person literally attached.
The rest is a blur.
Perhaps I sputtered an apology, attempting to seem normal, despite the fact that I was still on my knees and in a cloud of dust, deposited at the Milos’ collective six feet. My dogs danced and pranced with glee, while Milo looked down at us, I swear, with a sneer of disgust. The Milos extricated themselves; somehow, I managed to stand and limp home.
My dogs have taught me about my need for control. The tension between training them as good canine citizens while letting them be exactly who they are has been life-changing for me, rich with growth and development. But I was younger then, a newer dog-companion, and righteously pissed at them. I swore vehemently I would never walk them again, a proclamation that lasted seven hours.
I have since learned that being angry at a dog is a futile and ridiculous contradiction of life itself.
Lucy is gone now. Although it’s been some years, our house still echoes with a strange emptiness. Zac emerged as the man of the house with quiet dignity and incredibly calm-mostly-good-boy-behavior. Both Milos disappeared overnight from our neighborhood with an expected lack of fanfare. My knees eventually recovered, my temper calmed.
I continued to grow and learn from my relationship with Zac, my dear soul companion. I think of my chariot ride courtesy of the Doodles up the Beach Road with some tender snickers today. Its memory still tickles my heart.
My canine companions continue to give me the ride of a lifetime as I practice very imperfectly letting go of the reins.
~~~
Friends, if you have animal companions, what have they, what do they teach you?
And so importantly for all of us, how do you lighten up these days here in the Land of America? What lightens your heart? What opens you to a smile?
I wanted to update you by saying Zac Joe Doodle is gone now, too. And out of the energies of these two remarkable canine companions emerged the Love of My Life (true that, though my wife gets upset when I say it), Niki B., eighteen pounds of self-determination, cuddliness, and wild and crazy fun.
She insisted on being visually represented in this piece:
~~~
Here is an amazing song! Thanks, Andrew, for sending it on. I never heard of the group, the Copper Wimmin. This song is for us, perfectly. It is exactly what my heart needs to hear. It is called Kinder.
~~~
Dear Friends,
May we be healthy.
May we be present.
May we ride the waves of our lives.
May we ride the waves of our lives
No matter what we are given.
May all beings benefit from the words we share.
Stay blessed,
Aruni