A bonding adventure

Most everyone would agree that we live in a pretty busy world these days. Balancing a deadline-driven job, family and home is something I still haven’t got a handle on, despite almost two decades of practice. So it was with the usual flurry that I left for work one morning last week. I had just enough time to make it to the office for my meeting, if I made most of the green lights.

Then fate jumped in. Well, actually it strolled across the road just ahead of me. The ancient golden retriever didn’t even bother to look before he crossed. In that instant, I knew I would be late for my meeting. I pulled the car onto a side street and caught up with the dog. He wore a city tag with the current year. Good sign. All I had to do was get him into the car and call the number on the tag.

After “introducing” myself, I reached for his collar and gently tried to pull him in the direction of my car. With a yelp of displeasure, he wrestled the collar out of my hand and quickened his pace to a walk. I decided to follow, hoping I would see someone along the way who could help. After three blocks of wandering aimlessly and stopping to sniff the grass and cedars, the dog seemed no closer to getting home than I was getting to work. I gave up worrying about everything else and decided to concentrate on my new canine buddy.

Twenty minutes later, I tried a new tactic. I leaned down and said to the retriever, “It’s really time to go home.” I tried to project a picture of him lying on a cozy dog bed. He shot me a look and ambled off across a lawn in the opposite direction. Finally, several lawns later, he approached a house with a red door and a cat perched on the front railing. He made his way up the steps and then turned to me and wagged his tail. I knocked on the door and a woman opened it. While the dog sauntered past her, she explained that “Winston” must have escaped earlier when she put out the garbage. She thanked me for helping him find his way home.

As I walked back to my car, I thought about how Winston’s little adventure had helped me escape my stress for a while. Perhaps he knew how much I needed to wander aimlessly and smell the cedars. It was a great human/animal bonding experience.

And I couldn’t help but think of our feature article in this issue – “40 ways to bond over the holidays”. I had just experienced number 2 and I felt great.

With the stress of the season upon us, I hope you’ll take some extra time to bond with your animal companion. We’ve given you 40 ideas to start, but I’m sure you can think of many more. One thing you can be sure of – it will do you both a world of good.

Wishing you a wonderful holiday season,

Dana