It may seem odd to kick off a year of thank yous with one towards my dog. Arnold, after all, is not looking for a thank you note. But that’s just the thing. Sometimes being a dog is thankless, and yet many dogs provide consistent, loyal, and unconditional affection towards their people. I challenge you to find one who does so better than Arnie. Don’t get me wrong, Arnold has quirks and flaws a plenty; it so happens that none of them have to do with how he treats Matt, Ben, and me. (Sincere apologies are due to every delivery person ever, the cat species at large, and a dog or two at dog parks through the years). While graceful is not a word I would ever ever use to describe Arn, his transition to having Ben at home has been nothing but, which is both a huge gift to me and a giant relief.
Another reason I’m starting with Arnold is that my appreciation for him exists in a simple, pure, sensory plane. When I came home from a month-long fieldwork in Guatemala a few years ago, I was almost staggered by my appreciation, on a purely sensory level, for the home that Matt and I had built together. Arnold’s warm, wet nose and soft fur was a huge part of that.
Matt and I originally looked at Arnold’s litter in the hopes of adopting his sister, Lovie, but we were told that she was the troublemaker of the group and to “prepare to say no for the next three years.” Among the large litter of boxer/lab/shar pei mixes, Arnold caught Matt’s eye. We were told by the puppy fosters that he was the “fat, lazy, snuggly one.” Matt asked to see him, Arnold gave a giant yawn and nuzzled into Matt’s neck, and the rest, my friends, is history.
During some of my most desperate and profoundly low moments in the recent past, I fling myself on the bed, usually with a phone in my hand crying to a loved one (more on them later). Only gradually does it register that Arnold’s warm, fat head is snuggled in perfectly on the small of my back, in the crease of my knee, or even on my neck or head. He’s like a hug machine that comforts people with autism, except I don’t ever have to adjust the settings for the amount of pressure, and I don’t need a cue to seek comfort in the deep pressure. Arnold takes care of all of that for me. He is, at once, both shockingly dimwitted and insanely intuitive. He is people pleaser, generally pretty quiet, and a wonderful movie watching bud, which suits our family just fine. I hope that Lovie got matched with the right family to love on, because if she provides just a fraction of the love that Arnold does to us, she’ll be living up to her name. So thank you Arnold! I’ll give you extra pets just as soon as I get home.
Advertisements Share this:
