Becoming better

     I read this morning after a rough night a blog from Jon Katz, It touched me so much after a strange sad night of not ever feeling ready for bed because Minnie our sweet old cockier spaniel wasn't the first in bed as always. 

For at 9pm on the very dot of time every night she knew this was her favorite place to be, she loved being in bed with all of us the cats Jazzy and Tinker sometimes Lewis even if it was a really cold night, Little Sidda and my husband would find their places around Minnie already there while I setup a sitcom to watch on our bed TV while folding laundry and getting ready for bed...Minnie liked being the first one in place in the bed for the night because she knew it grew crowded from then on. I would setup the coffee maker for the next morning as I rotated her and Oscar outside once more in the dark, since Oscar hates the dark he never stayed up late at night, not ever. He loved his own bedroom door closed by 8 or 9 pm until the next morning when my husband would get up at 6 am, He and Oscar would share the morning together as I stayed in bed till 8 am with Minnie and Sidda. That routine worked great for all of us keeping Oscar and Minnie separated.

Going to bed however was usually with my husband in bed with Minnie as I closed them in to run around the home closing it up and checking on the rest of the pets, Last night was very strange without Minnie.

 So I am taking it easy today, Oscar and Sidda are napping close by as I write this, they are liking that the home has no closed doors anymore, my pet rotation system is over.

 It was Minnie who would usually be right beside me directly every morning as I got online or did my writing time such as this......

Minnie taught us both so much, I saw so very easily and clearly in my husband how he changed into a nicer person for her, and he was always nice to our pets I would never of married him if he wasn't good to animals in the first place but it was Minnie who really got to his heart deeper then all the rest.

She made him a better person.

I am a changed better person as well, I learned so much from Minnie about grooming, about nutritional issues and about how all dogs are not the same at all. While Oscar and Sidda are very much alike, so well trained and so well organized in their schedules, they are good together, both playful and at peace with the other. While Minnie was a bulldozer, a crazy anything goes kind of dog, while she was so very sweet yet she was so very unorganized and unsure of herself. I learned quickly she needed a different style in training, I gave her allowance for breaking the rules because she hadn't ever learned them to begin with. She came to us fully grown about 4 years old so she taught me how to handle a stray soul. 

I became a much better dog owner challenged by Minnie, devoted by Minnie, sleeping side by side with Minnie. She taught me how to be a much better pet protector and a good peaceful person just in having her chaotic ways in my life every day. 

So I finally went to bed last night and I listened for her to get up, to walk around wanting outside at 3 am, then I realized we were all trying to figure out our new ways around our far more quiet empty home Because Minnie was larger then life for all of us even in her old age.