Willie Meets Riley

Willie has met his match in Riley, another therapy dog. How fun it is to watch the ‘getting to know you’ ritual of Willie and Riley. Willie is a 37 pound labradoodle and Riley is a 20 pound yorkie and chihuahua mix. Riley is a pistol and won’t put up with Willie stealing his kong toy. It occurs to me how much happier we humans would be if we could negotiate as generously as Willie and Riley. For example, Reily barks and growls at Willie for stealing his kong toy and Willie doesn’t hold it against Reily. He doesn’t think,”Reily hurt my feelings so I’m going to give him the cold shoulder to let him know how bad a dog he is.” No. The next moment Willie and Riley are chasing after each other and laughing their little furry heads off as are Riley’s owner and myself. I think we have so much we can learn from our dogs. Recently a friend sent me a series of photographs of a scruffy dog and a black and white cat walking together. The photo captions said that every day this dog and this cat walk together. The dog comes to the cat’s house and the cat jumps down to greet the dog and off they go. Every day they enjoy each other’s company this way. You who are dog owners know what great company your dog is. You don’t need to have constant chatter to feel the comfort of their presence. How lucky are we humans who have a friend who can be with you in silence and feel the fullness of each other’s company.