I aspire to be the person my dog thinks I am

I remember telling a friend this and getting a weird look back. “Oh, so you aspire to feed animals and clean up after them?”, he said. That’s not exactly what I’m talking about. What I’m saying is, my dog treats me like I would like to be treated by anyone: with loyalty, care, trust. A dog treats his owner like the owner is a person who deserves to be loved. 

When he destroys your brand-new flowers, and you chase him around with a stick, yelling like it’s World War 3… he still doesn’t hate you, even though he probably has no idea why you’re being so hostile to him. You’re still the person that keeps him alive: you give him food, water, shelter; you give him love and all that. And in return, he loves you and protects you. For him, despite all your defects, you’re perfect. You’re the reason he’s alive, and he’s trying to make up for it every day of his live.

And while he’s trying and trying to make up for it, days pass. And as days pass, you feed him and you give him water and you give him shelter. And so, he never really thinks that his job to protect you is over, and he keeps on being loyal and caring.

And at the end of the day, after running around and yelling at the dog, you smile and look at him and go play with him. In five minutes you’ve forgotten about your tulips. And he forgets you’ve been chasing him around like a psycho. Even more, neither one of you, in the whole frenzy, stopped loving the other for a second.

And this right here is true friendship. I think people have a lot to learn from these animals. They rarely realize that when you throw them a frisbee, it’s because they need to catch it. Or that when you’re forgotten to feed them, you’ve probably given them enough for one day already.

I think that… friendship is just benefits in an infinity loop. I do something for you today, and you owe me and do something for me tomorrow, and then I think you’ve done more than I did in the first place and I feel like I owe you, and so on. Sure, there are other things there. But that’s friendship for me (as long as it’s not only based on these kinds of interests, of course).

And true friendship… just like the dog and his owner. True friendship is when two people support each other, and they’re so used to it that they don’t even see it anymore – the benefit for which we owe each other… is merely being there.

Articol scris de: Raluca-Ioana Vacaru (11B)

Poza: http://rebela-wanted.deviantart.com/

Posted in: Think different