Heart Reading … Day 65

Paying attention to our complementary animal natures

Have you ever caught animals doing things together in their natural state (which is always) and wished you had always been able to see different species from this expansive and curious perspective? Birds play who can fly closest to the cars (especially robins), ants seem to walk vertically as easily as they walk horizontally, stink bugs walk super slowly like they haven’t a care in the world (maybe like sloths?), and my dogs Rosie and Luna hang out behind the couch seeing whose mouth fits in the other’s mouth better — among other experiments with the limbs and movable parts they have to work with…

Rosie and Luna are a bit older than 18 months. They’re almost “teenagers” in dog years and they act the part. A squirrel runs by and their body language is like, “dude, you want a piece of me??” But what is so sweet about watching these two over time is the way that they can play so rough with each other one second, as if they were fighting, and the next second be sitting side by side as calm as could be. They love and accept each other beautifully.

These two canine best friends have their brief moments when they get sick of each other, but 95% of the time they are endearingly harmonious in their interactions. I’m very grateful to be able to watch them be together day to day; it’s the first time I’ve ever lived with two dogs and these two hound dogs are so well matched. The larger, stronger one is more docile and the smaller, faster one is more “in yo’ face” … if she likes you that is. They teach each other a lot based on their complementary dispositions.

This morning I brought Luna and Rosie out to the fenced in area where they have gone twice a day for months to play. Recently an older man has complained that they make too much noise and got a few others to join him in yelling at us for letting them play loudly in the morning. There is no other area for the dogs to play without driving them many miles away so in order to respect their wishes we’ve found a happy medium (at least for now) which is to only let them rough house in the afternoon and to only “do their business” quietly in the morning.

It can be easy to get upset with neighbors who voice their displeasure, particularly when conditions are rather limited for satisfying everyone’s needs. But if we all seek harmony, we can find it fairly easily — maybe 95% of the time.