The way the dog trots out the front door
every morning
without a hat or an umbrella
without any money
or the keys to her doghouse
never fails to fill the saucer of my heart
with milky admiration…
(From: “Dharma,” by Billy Collins, in Sailing Around the Room, Random House, 2002
My mornings are incomplete without her. Somewhere between 4:30 and 5 a.m., as I begin the slow process of waking, our ritual begins. I hear her rise from her bed on the floor, shake herself awake, then two, perhaps three, seconds past before she springs up from the floor and onto the bed, choosing to nestle her back against mine. As small as she is, she is like a block of cement then, a guarantee that by six a.m., I will awaken, and my morning will begin. I’m first to rise; she prefers another ten or fifteen minutes of dozing. But as I grind coffee beans and spoon them into a paper filter, she pads into the kitchen, stretches, and patiently waits for her breakfast. Coffee ready and kibble consumed, we settle ourselves in the living room, where she curls up in a corner of the sofa, dozing and occasionally casting a watchful eye at me while I write. She is Maggie, a small border terrier mix, adopted five years ago to become my faithful companion, but more: comforter, guardian, playmate, nonjudgmental friend. Whether canine or feline, many of us are very attached to our pets.
…Perdita makes me smile every day. She runs to greet me when I come home, and she flops at my feet in the morning to be petted. She loves boxes and balled-up pages of the Nation. She is afraid of vacuum cleaners and tornado sirens. She lies on her back in squares of sunshine with her paws in the air and looks perfectly ridiculous and content. My friend Kristen tells her cat Mouse each morning that he’s her best friend, which is the sort of behavior that makes non-cat-people roll their eyes. But there’s something to it. Perdita and I don’t discuss novels or anything, but we really are friends. (From: “Perdita, Why Cats are Better than People”by Michael Robbins, Poetry Magazine, July 2012).
Pets are often the subject of poetry and essays. They’ve even served as major characters in novels or heroes in films. Anthropomorphism aside, we humans have strong emotional connections with our pets, whether canine, feline, equine or other kinds. As companions or sources of comfort when we’re feeling lonely, blue or under the weather. They rarely pass up a chance to play, and some pets, like my small dog, protect us as if we are their children.
Pets are healers too. Pets, as Florence Nightingale, the pioneer of modern nursing, observed over a century ago, are “excellent companion (s) for the sick…” There are countless stories of animals assisting and helping their human companions. One marine dog’s heroism during wartime, for example, is documented in the best-selling, Top Dog, by Maria Goodavage (2014). Lucca, a bomb-sniffing German Shepard whose actions saved many lives, lost one leg in battle and was later awarded a purple heart for her bravery.
Dogs like Lucca are only one example of the potential impact animals can have on human lives . There are guide dogs, hearing dogs and service dogs, for example, whose assistance to individuals with visual, hearing or other disabilities is invaluable. Animal-Assisted Therapy (AAT) is a widely practiced approach that is used to achieve therapeutic goals through interactions between patients and trained animals. AAT provides comfort, assistance, and companionship for people suffering from chronic or grave illnesses, grief, depression or disability. It’s an approach widely used in many settings such as hospitals, prisons, nursing homes, mental institutions and homes. According to the American Humane Society, AAT has helped children who’ve experienced abuse or neglect, patients undergoing chemotherapy and other difficult medical treatments, and veterans and their families struggling with the effects of wartime military service.
When I was in my teens, our family had another dog, a terrier mix, who was my younger brother’s constant companion. One November night in 1966, a fire destroyed my family home’s. Our dog,Tico, was the first to notice, licking the face of my brother to wake him and likely saving his life. Several years ago, my husband and I had Winston, a West Highland terrier who died in 2008 at age seventeen. Calm, steady and loyal, his temperament made him an excellent candidate for therapy dog training. Once trained, he accompanied my husband to visit young hospital patients. Winston was happy to lie quietly next to a sick child, have his ears rubbed or back stroked, seemingly unaware to the happy smile on a child’s face that his presence produced. When it was time to move to the next child, he obediently followed my husband to the young patient’s bed, tail erect, and patiently repeated the process again and again.
He puts his cheek against mine
and makes small expressive sounds…
he turns upside-down, his four paws
in the air
and his eyes dark and fervent.
“Tell me you love me,” he says…
(From: “Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night,” in Dog Songs, Poems by Mary Oliver, 2013)
Is it any wonder we become so attached to our pets? Or that they offer us solace and comfort in difficult times? Or that poets and essayists alike have so frequently written about their pets with such affection? Mary Oliver devoted an entire book of poetry to her dogs.
But I want to extol not the sweetness nor the placidity of the dog, but the wilderness out of which he cannot step entirely, and from which we benefit… Dog is one of the messengers of that rich and still magical first world…
And we are caught by the old affinity, a joyfulness—his great and seemly pleasure in the physical world. Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. it is no small gift. …What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs? –-From Dog Songs: Poems, by Mary Oliver, Penguin Press, 2013.
Writing Suggestions
Have you had a special pet, whether from childhood or more recently, who provided you with comfort, solace or service in a time of need? Has a pet played a healing role in your life or someone you know? Write about a pet–dog, cat, horse, or another kind of animal who played an important role in your life at one time.
- Describe the pet and its unique qualities. How did it endear itself to you?
- Tell the story/or write a poem about your pet and of a time he/she helped you heal from hardship, sorrow or even illness.