Dog Lovers are Happier
Carmelene Melanie Siani
I’d just read an article claiming that people who have dogs are happier than people who have cats. I don’t have a clue if that’s true, but I do know that I have never been a cat person. And I certainly know that a lot of love passes between dogs and their human families. Remember that iconic phrase, “Happiness is a warm puppy”? The Peanuts strip showed a smiling Lucy hugging Snoopy. First published in 1960, the comic can still be found on bookshelves today.
Years ago, my husband and I had been regularly dog-sitting for various family members when we decided we had to stop doing it. Why? Because we missed the dogs too much when they went home to their respective owners. Also, even though it had been almost four years since my husband lost his own dog/friend/walking companion, he still talked about her and remembered her.
My brother, the most dog-loving person in my family, put it best when we were taking care of his dog one time. About 20 minutes after he’d dropped off Ralphie for us to babysit while he was gone to hike the Grand Canyon, he called and said:
“I looked in the rearview mirror and couldn’t see Ralphie there looking at me with hearts coming out of his eyes.”
Such a visual image, I could literally see it — Ralphie staring at my brother in the rearview mirror from the back seat with little pink crayon hearts coming out of his eyes.
That afternoon, my husband and I took Ralphie to the park so he could run and play. Ralphie didn’t run and play, though — instead, he bopped around, peeing every 30 seconds, the entire time we were there. My husband joked that he couldn’t have any pee left in him. “I know, huh. What d’you think he’s doing when he goes over to every bush and lifts his leg?”
Without missing a beat David responded with authority. “Dog choreography.”
I looked over at my husband standing there, the leash in his hand, patiently waiting while Ralphie peed yet again. And I could clearly see that my big, over six-foot husband had big pink hearts coming out of his eyes.