MIND TREATS

Yesterday was Jet’s birthday. For newcomers to my blog, I’m a dog and Jet is my foster mom who rescued me from a kill shelter.  (There’s an oxymoron if I ever heard one.) Before getting locked up in the pound, I had a life with a family and then I lived on the street. The street is a hard teacher but a great source of lessons, which I now share with humans. As the Dog Whisperer often says, it’s usually the human, not the dog that needs the training. 

It seems that humans spend half their life rushing time in order to celebrate their birthday and the other half of their life regretting that birthdays arrive so soon every year. Say what you will, but dogs have a much more sensible view of birthdays.

First, why dwell on the day when you were born when no one really remembers it anyway?  Second, dog or human, we were just wrinkly blobs the day we were born. Why make such a fuss about that? Third, celebrating every moment in every day seems a lot more fun than just celebrating one day a year. Finally, who cares about what happens to you or what you look like when you get old?  From a dog’s perspective, it makes more sense to wake up every morning happy to be alive than worrying about how you look while you’re alive?

I heard about a missionary named Everett who worked with an Amazon people called Piraha. The Piraha language has no words for past or future. – Pretty much like a dog. And, like us [dogs], the Piraha don’t bother dwelling on the past or worrying about the future so there is no need to have words to describe them nor any anxiety about how to hold on to them. Plus, we both find a profound joy in the present that humans seem to notice, even envy, and yet are regrettably and remarkably terrible at emulating.

This leads me to my lesson of the week… Forget counting or fussing about the days before or after your birthday. Focus on each moment of every day and you will embrace them more enthusiastically, share them more abundantly and remember them with the kind of clarity that you can serve up like a mind treat when you’re gray. 

QUESTION FROM A FAN

Parker:

I have a boy master who gets badges for his good deeds.  He puts the badges on the shoulder of the second skin he wears on special days.  I prefer food so my humans give me treats when I do good deeds.  The bad news is that the treats give me a tummy ache. In fact, a lot of things I eat make my tummy mad. I love to eat. Can you help?  Your fan, Gustus

 

Dear Gustus:

Remember, I'm a dog, not a doctor but it sounds like you have food allergies that upset your stomach. Talk to your humans about this so they can discuss the problem with your vet. If so, you can eat dog food for sensitive stomachs (made by several companies) and Purina makes a wonderful treat called Gentle Snackers. (See image.) They are hypoallergenic canine treats and easy on the tummy.  – Let me know how it turns out.

Your Pal, 

Parker