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Sonny Boy Life
from a Dog's-Eye View |
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Sonny
Boy
Life from a Dog's-Eye View
by Winnie McCroy
My friend Lynn possesses the healthiest attitude toward life that I have ever witnessed. She approaches both love and friendship with no expectation other than to enjoy every moment to its fullest. When Lynn and I first met, we had both just extricated ourselves from long-term relationships. But while I was an emotional basket case, resolved never to get involved with another woman again, Lynn handled her newly single status in stride.
After much marveling at her ability to keep her cool in matters of the heart, I asked about the secret of her success. "My dog," she replied simply. "I was once like you," said Lynn, "hesitant to get involved with people because I was afraid to get hurt, because all good things must eventually end. One day, I came home from work to walk my dog Max, and realized that even though I had left in a hurry that morning and had been gone all day, he was happy to see me, and greeted me with a pure, undiluted love. It didn’t matter that I had yelled at him yesterday for chewing on the couch cushions. Max loved me unconditionally, and was happy whenever he saw me. I decided then that the secret to happiness was to look at life from a dog's-eye view."
This dog theory seemed so simple. And Lynn seemed truly non-fazed by the romantic turmoil obviously surrounding her life. I decided that I had to get down with this hypothesis. The light soon came to me in the form of Sonny Boy. It was definitely not love at first sight when I entered the train station on that rainy day last fall and saw him huddled against the tilt-away seats, fur matted, a tiny pink puppy collar strained around his neck.
In fact, I remember that I groaned aloud as I
let the train pass, and coerced the pitiful Rottweiler pup back to my home,
feeding him leftover Indian takeout. I found it difficult at first to access the
happiness potential of my dog. While Lynn’s dog Max was a tiny furball of
well-behaved sunshine, Sonny was more akin to a demolition crew. He wrestled
with my armchairs, chewed on the walls, and dragged me down the street during
every walk.
Countless times I found myself at wits end, resolved to bag Project Canine—yet
when I looked into his big brown eyes, my sense of responsibility delivered a
sucker punch. Always better at taking orders, I had to learn to dish out
commands to Sonny. At first, it seemed futile. I forced myself to be consistent
in correcting his missteps, no matter how overwhelmed I was. In time, he began
to respond. He learned to sit and lie down on command. He came to me when I
called him. And he stopped jumping up on people—-mostly, anyway.
Before Sonny Boy came into my life, I led a relatively carefree existence, making up the rules as I went along. Big dogs, however, come with their own set of rules, and don’t allow you to forget when it is time to feed them, or to take them for a walk. Although it was difficult to teach this old dog a new trick, Sonny Boy taught me the importance of being consistent and reliable. I have taken this knowledge with me into my work, setting goals for myself and expecting that they will be fulfilled.
I have also taken it into my love life. I understand now how to ask for what I want from a relationship, and to be persistent enough to see it through. Nearly a year later, Sonny is still with me, in our Brooklyn apartment far from my job in the West Village, but only four blocks from the biggest dog run in the city. He lies at my feet now as I write this, quiet and presumably happy.
Taking Sonny Boy in has paid off in a way I
never imagined possible. In teaching him, I learned how to demand what I want
from life, and follow
through with whatever it takes to get it. In short, I have become a better dyke.
And the simplistic happiness of life from a dogs-eye view? Yes, I have learned that, too. When I come home at the end of the day, Sonny Boy runs to greet me, and the pure, unfettered love shining in those big brown eyes is reflected in my own. I no longer look at life as an uphill battle. These days, it feels more like a walk in the park.
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