Monday, November 24, 2014

Man's Best Friend.

Mellow saw the vet today. Thankfully, he doesn't have any broken bones. From what we can gather, he must have severely twisted or jammed his leg. This is good news, but he's going to be out of commission for a few weeks. Looks like Mellow's age is finally catching up with him.

I must be frank, though. This reminder of my fluffy friend's mortality is not pleasant. The thought of Mellow not being with me for a lifetime is unsettling at best. Canine he may be, Mellow is family. I hold him in the same regard as a child. For those of us that welcome dogs into our lives... this is the weight we must bear. Our dogs can't stay with us forever. We must contend with the burden of burying our friends; we must shoulder the grief that comes with losing a member of the family. With my other dog Echo pulling through mammary cancer earlier in the year, it's been a wild ride of emotions when it comes to my dogs.

Mellow (left) and Echo (right)

All dogs descend from the gray wolf. Their evolution from wolf to dog dates as late as nearly 38,000 years ago. Skeletal dog remains have been discovered with humans at nearly all major archaeological dig sites of ancient civiliations around the globe - Siberia, China, Persia and so on. The dog has been with us for as long as we've been human. When folks state that the dog is man's best friend, it's quite literally a true statement. Without the dog by our side, mankind surely wouldn't have flourished quite as proficiently. Whether in the role of guardian, hunter or friend, dogs have walked the same path out the prehistoric caves of antiquity as humanity has. We collectively owe a great deal to the dog.

And to think... all dogs want in return is a little bit of love.*

*Maybe some table scraps every once in a while wouldn't hurt, either.

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