The Dogs Purpose

I try not to let things get me too worked up.  I try REALLY hard.  Usually, I am successful.  People say and do things well within their rights and opinions.  Whether I agree with them or not is well within my rights, as well.

Over the weekend, during my 2 a.m.- 5 a.m. "can't get back to sleep" time for the 3rd night out of 4, I found myself reading facebook posts.  A post had been made on a page by the page owner and it follows:

"I always laugh at those people who buy dogs before they have kids and treat them like little people. They always say they won't neglect them when they have kids, but we all know that's almost impossible. If they were smart, they'd wait until after their kids are older to get a dog, when they can really appreciate an animal that loves unconditionally and never talks back."

This is not the post that got me worked up at 3 in the morning.  I would have to probably agree with this page owner, for the most part.  It was this post made by a follower that has just been eating at me all weekend.

"People who treat their dogs like humans have problems, I have a dog and we love him and all that but the main purpose we got him is to be a guard dog and protect us... It cracks me up when ppl sleep with thee dogs meanwhile their someone in the back yard stealing their 3 hundred dollar bike (true story).... Theirs a difference between animals and humans"

First and foremost.  I know it wasn't this follower who did this, but, why, oh why?  Why?  Why?  If you owned a $300 bike, why would you just "leave" it in the backyard to be stolen?  Why?  Did I ask WHY????  If I left something outside, like a lawn mower or my Ipad (which I do frequently because it likes to lay out in the sun), and it was stolen, yes, I would be upset that someone had violated me like that.  However....that is my fault for leaving it out.  Period.  Really, you left a $300 bike in your backyard....WHY? 

Second.  We are ALL different.  There isn't one of us who is the same.  My dogs have never broke my heart, are always happy to see me, make me laugh, make me cry, drive me crazy, get my house dirty, and YES, I let them sleep with me.  But I LOVE them in my own way.  Yes, MY OWN WAY!  There isn't a manual out there to tell you how much you can love someone, something or anything.  Yes, I love my iphone, but it doesn't get to sleep with me.  Why, because that is silly, for me.  However, if someone sleeps with their iphone, that is their choice!

I will say this.  This person did say something that I agree with.  Their is a difference between animals and humans.  Sadly for her, she hasn't learned the reason WHY people let their dogs sleep with them.  She doesn't get it.  She would do well to read my previous post, Paying it Forward, then, she might get it, or at least begin to understand it.

I am not sure why I let this one statement nag at me all weekend.  But it did, and I have now vented.  We all love our dogs differently.  Some, like her, buy them for protection so they can leave their $300 bikes in their backyard instead of securing them at night.  Others, like me, by them for friendship and companionship.  Which, in my opinion, is the better of the two choices.  My dogs protect my Ipad (I was just kidding about leaving it outside, so, don't come looking to steal my tanned Ipad), and my many other treasures, from inside my home, as well as those dastardly rabbits, which are the reason why I wake up at 2 a.m. every morning.   My girls are inside my home because I love them and I want to protect them, just as much as they want to protect me.  They are not just dogs to me!