Living with a Labrador

In the middle of a rainy Saturday afternoon Mark and I decide to start a project ‘operation purge the attic’ – pretty self-explanatory. We start the project in a rainstorm, that’s okay because we are perfectly safe and dry, but both garage doors are open for the additional light and fresh air. Brodie is distraught, pacing the garage floors and in general being underfoot – in attempting to make my dog have human thoughts – I believe that he is upset when one of us ‘disappears’ into the attic for a period if time. His ability for human thought is likely not true, I know that, but it helps me make him more human. Ultimately he gives up and sulks off.

After a few hours of this project we are all bored; my personal attention span is that of a small insect, so I was happy to have made it for the few hours. I go in search of our dog…Brodie is sitting soaking wet in the middle of the front lawn, just sitting, silent, and letting the rain fall on him. Rejected by us as we worked through our project, he has erected a shrine of toys – 4 or 5 of his toys are neatly placed around him, as soaked as he is. Perhaps it is in homage to the rain – which is a precious resource – as rain fills our reservoirs and is our water supply in Northern California. He sits silently watching the rain fall. I have to wonder again – what is he thinking????

I call his name, he turns, and his deep thought is broken. He selects a toy and runs to the garage ready to resume life as a Labrador. He doesn’t care that he is wet, he doesn’t care that his toys are wet, he only knows that someone is paying him attention and he wants to play. It compels me to step out into the rain with him and toss his toys a few times for a fun game of retrieve. I can’t say I’ve ever played in the rain before, and I didn’t really this time, more of a stand-in-place-and-toss-a-toy for my dog, versus truly ‘play’. But I didn’t melt and he burned off a little pent up energy.

It did serve to remind me that a dog loves life regardless of the circumstances or weather, the day doesn’t have to be perfect to be celebrated, and a little rain shouldn’t stop us from doing the things we love.