Monday, June 01, 2020

Dog therapy in a cruel world

Do I always look this unimpressed?
London, ON
June 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram
Someone wasn't all that happy about her trip to the groomer.

Between everyone wearing masks and the reconfigured-by-necessity floorplan, it was just different enough to throw her completely off her game. It's difficult to explain pandemic protocols to a dog.

Still, once we got on the road, she settled down down a bit and enjoyed the ride. "Car" is one of her favorite words, and the mere mention of it will send her into a literal spin. She'll calm down only if we take her outside and let her into the car.

It's another facet of her inexplicable weirdness, another quirky aspect of behavior that makes her insanely unique, another reason we've become rather addicted to her outsized spirit.

In the end, she behaved like a champ - this despite her general aversion to getting her nails clipped - and returned home to be fawned over by her humans before curling up in a ball for a well-earned nap.

It's a trivial thing, this, but these days we find ourselves focusing more than ever on the trivial. Whatever you call it - escape, coping mechanism, wellness strategy, etc. - it beats the alternative.

Because the alternative is screaming at us every moment of every day, threatening to overwhelm us as we try to navigate an unprecedented chapter in history. It can be incalculably, cruelly hard, this life thing. So please don't mind if I hang out with, and write about, our dog a little more often than might otherwise be the case.

It's how we get by.

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