Full Circle, Part 2
It’s been a couple weeks since I published my first installment of my new blog, and I am grateful for the encouraging feedback I’ve received. It’s been heartening to feel support and hear appreciation for my choice to be vulnerable and honest. I am admittedly exhausted and pretty cynical and cranky these days, so the infusion of positive messages is truly helpful.
I’m also grateful for folks who didn’t like it honoring my request for no mean comments. We have enough negativity surrounding us these days, and I am grateful for the opportunity to share my experiences and feelings without fear of being attacked. It’s a scary world out there on the internet these days.
What is NOT scary is sweet old dogs. And I have a new Full Circle story to share before returning to writing essays about my job transition and my reflections about what I’ve seen happening under the hood of our government and community systems.
But for now, a joyful story! Two weeks ago, Blueberry, a 15 year old Golden Lab, came into my life. He is a serious chunk with a loud bark (saved mostly for garbage trucks) and a big smile. Full of love and powerful wags, he greets everyone with curiosity and fervor. In the mornings when I get out of bed, or when I return home from being away for a while, he is so happy that he rubs his face into the rug with wild abandon, until the rug has pretty much turned upside down. He’s also a very helpful supervisor when it comes to yard work.
My sweet Golden Retriever Florie has been gone since March, and I had forgotten how nice it is to interact with folks in the neighborhood when walking a dog. Or when folks are walking by my house, an old dog goes to the fence to greet them. This morning, I got to meet a nice young couple visiting Portland from Vermont. They were enjoying a visit to the neighborhood where they adopted their now 9 year old Lab. We talked about all the ways adoring humans shower old dogs with affection and lots of fish oil to ease their aging, despite all the smelly farts that result. You just don’t get to have those kinds of interactions with strangers when sipping your Sunday morning coffee on the porch by yourself.
What’s even more joyful about Blueberry, and what makes him even more special is that it was none other than Blueberry who taught my Florie how to be a dog. Florie was fostered by a lovely woman in the neighborhood who removed Florie from a loveless home. Florie had spent most of the first 2 years of her life in a garage. She was overweight, didn’t know how to walk on a leash, and was generally unsocialized. Thanks to Blueberry, she learned the ways of SE Portland Dog and within a year was ready to be adopted.
At the time, I had been searching for a Blue Heeler to adopt because I had loved my old girl Dinga so much. But I wasn’t able to find a heeler with Dinga’s mellow temperament. I had started developing crushes on some of the Yellow Labs in the neighborhood. One day, I took to Facebook and posted, “Looking to adopt a Yellow Dog.” It was a Yellow Lab I had in my mind’s eye, but a friend forwarded me an email about Florie, whose foster mom was putting her up for adoption.
The loving woman who fostered Florie and gave her to me almost 10 years ago now has since fostered dozens of human children and is now the adoptive mama to three of them, two of them under the age of 8. Many years ago, Blueberry went off to live with his human grandparents when all these little ones were coming and going. Much to everyone’s surprise, he outlived the grandparents. Two weeks ago, I found myself visiting with my friend about how Blueberry wasn’t faring so well being back at her house.
“Well, he’s welcome to come stay here and try it out. I mean, I’m pretty used to having old dogs around.” I wasn’t expecting to get a new dog anytime soon, of course, but he is so full of love. I’m sure my blood pressure has improved since he arrived, and my friend tells me that he is much more content here in my relatively calm household.
I guess I got that Yellow Lab after all. It all comes Full Circle.
