No matter how close

Julia ♦ September 7, 2021 ♦ Leave a comment

Indian Running with Dog by Paul Manship
Exhibited at the Corcoran Gallery, Washington, DC, July 2013

“No matter how close we are to another person, few human relationships are as free from strife, disagreement, and frustration as is the relationship you have with a good dog.”
— Dean Koontz

Those of us who have adopted an animal will immediately connect with what Koontz is saying here.  Our non-human family members are sometimes the only ones we want to be near at the end of a tiring and discouraging day.   It’s not that we love them more than we love our spouse or children or friends.  It’s just that things are so much more simple with them.

The very things that make humans different from animals — verbal communication, abstract reasoning, ambition and a long view of the future or past — can also make them less than ideal company when we need nothing more than quiet companionship and unspoken but steady affection.  Being with an animal is like solitude, only better.   It has the best assets of privacy and seclusion, brightened by a touch of joy, understanding and fun.

People are wonderful and irreplaceable, but relationships can be terribly complicated at times.  When your life feels overwhelming, I wish you the simple therapy of spending some time with a friendly creature whose mere presence says all that needs to be said.

One year ago today:

I’ve tried

This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.