For the Love of Dogs

A Man's Best Friend

Bill Burr once put it best I think. He tells a story where his girlfriend adopted a dog without getting his approval. At first, he was upset. Within a week, he was in love. The girlfriend then complains that he loves the dog more than her. He responds:

Well, I don’t see you shaking your ass at the door when I get home at 3am drunk!

Crassness aside, we don’t deserve dogs. This is my lovely Rheya Kelvin:

Rheya was named after the love interest in the book/movie Solaris, one of my all time favorite characters. My first dog was Katharine Clifton, from The English Patient. I’m a sucker for romance.

I got Rheya when she was eight weeks old. She was a tiny little thing and peed all the house everywhere. But God was she loving. She was found next to a gas station all alone in a rainstorm at 3 weeks old crying. I think that’s left her with a deep need for attachment as she’s a little needy and I’ve never met a more affectionate dog, which I have to say matches what I want from a dog very well.

All she wants to do is cuddle, play, and nap. She is never far away, following me as I walk from room to room in the house. Every room has a bed for her or she’ll be up on the couch, although she definitely prefers snuggling up next to me or in my lap when she can. She’s currently sleeping on me napping and dreaming, her little body shaking as she chases imaginary bunnies in a field somewhere.

She’s grown up into a one year old puppy and she’s not perfect. She still has accidents from time to time. And I sometimes yell at her. But she’s quick to forgive and has to be the most adorable creature I’ve ever met. She loves strangers and gets so excited when someone comes to visit. And boy does she love to play. She’ll play fetch and keep away for as long as I’m willing. I have to say, her ability to keep a toy away from me is uncanny, She has incredibly fast reflexes and will playfully growl at me like I’m somehow not trying hard enough to get the toy. Although no matter how tough the toys I buy, they inevitably end up in a pile of stuffing on my door. I don’t mind.

Rheya, like Katie before her, is my family. She sleeps cuddled up next to me with her head on my back every night. She’s also a good guard dog, stepping in between me and the door whenever someone arrives. She’s loving, loyal, playful, and affectionate. And someday she’ll be gone. Something I’ve gone through three times already, which if you have, you know just how hard it is. But we always come back because we know those years together are worth it.

We genuinely don’t deserve dogs. They embody what humanity could only hope to be. But God we are lucky to have them and I count myself so lucky every day to have Rheya in my life.

I love you little girl.