We sure could find worse models to emulate. The old cliche about “everything I need to know” doesn’t hold water–there are many things our dogs can’t teach us (how to balance a checkbook or write a blog post, for example). But the basic attitude of a dog toward life, and toward humans, is another story altogether. Would that we ALL treated each other as gently and with as much compassion as well-socialized dogs treat us. IMAGE: Many thanks to Mactoons for this…
While not a cure-all, you might be surprised. Sometimes the best cure for depression is something that gets us out of ourselves and focused on other things . . . . such as the love and needs of a puppy or rescue dog. Consider adopting a canine companion from your local animal shelter, if you’ve started to feel as if no one really cares about you. There’s no mistaking when a dog loves you! Of course, that love must be…
I’ve almost never been without a dog in my adult life (and those few months were pretty grim). Dogs are easily my favorite kind of non-humans. This is perhaps not all that surprising: humans have lived in something of a symbiotic relationship with dogs since prehistory, and our two species have been cohabiting and co-evolving, literally for millennia (since the Neolithic). There’s actually a pretty good case to be made that, without our dogs co-evolving with us to guard us…