Good Morning!!

31 Oct. 2013  If I had to assign a bible verse to my dog (bear with me!), I think it would be (at this particular moment, but it might change in the future!!) Psalm 118:24 that says “This is the day which the Lord has made; Let us rejoice and be glad in it”.    Every single morning of his life, Digger has greeted me with a wagging tail, eager to get the day started and eager to get his morning cuddle.  He sits outside my bedroom door waiting for me to open the door. When I do, he stands up, tail a-wagging as I stumble out in my pyjamas or dog walking clothes.  I say hello, give him a quick pat on the head and venture down the stairs. He knows the routine, so he follows, still wagging his tail and waiting for me to pour my first cup of coffee. I then go to the sun room, sit on the floor and pay attention to my furry companion.  I rub his back, his head, his chin and clear his eye-boogies (can’t stand eye-boogies, not in humans, not in dogs!).  He then lies down and exposes his underbelly, which you know, if you’re a dog lover, is a very vulnerable position for a dog to adopt.  It exposes the softest, easiest target for a predator to kill a dog. When a dog lies on his back, he’s submitting to you, believing you won’t harm him. If he does this around another dog, then he knows that he’s not the top dog. Digger only does this around dogs with whom he is great friends and never around strange dogs he first meets.  Smart dog, wouldn't you say?  He’s cautious around strangers but vulnerable around friends.

So, I give him a good rubdown and he starts to ‘talk’ to me.  Border terriers ‘sing’ (google it on youtube and you’ll find loads of examples). He’s a happy dog; happy to be around me, to have his belly rubbed, just to hang out until it’s time to do something else.  They say that dog owners and their dogs start to look like each other.  Well, I hope I never start to look like Digger but you know what I would like??? Sometimes I would like to be like Digger. He waits patiently, he’s eager to start the day, with its new possibilities.  He knows what I’m like, yet still wants to be around me even before I've had my first cup of coffee.  Nothing is boring to him. The same walk down the Nickey Line is like Disney Land to him. New smells, new sights, new dogs to meet and greet, new possibilities.

Some of you might question my assignment of human emotions/qualities/characteristics to my dog.  I don’t care.  I love my dog, not because I need something else to take care of and not because I want to control, dominate, take charge or command him.  I love my dog because he’s loveable and cute and fun and cute! Not moody, not weird or jealous or cruel or hateful or back-biting or devious or betraying or self-important (shall I go on???).  AND he starts every day with an eagerness, an expectation and an enthusiasm for what the day will bring and how he’s going to spend that day with me, his Alpha dog.  I long to wake up each day with this attitude towards My Alpha Dog.

Indeed, this is the day the Lord has made. I want to rejoice and be glad in it.

  

Oh, and by the way, Digger looks forward to meeting a new friend named Mick Jagger, who is from New York. I think he’s much cuter than the human, though!  Here’s his photo. You be the judge. 

Baby Digs

Forgot to post this for his birthday.  Digger at 8 weeks.  Bless 'im!

Clever Dog....

28 Oct 2013 – For the first time in the 12 years that Digger has been alive, he slept in my bedroom in his bed.  Scandalous, I know.  Dogs aren’t supposed to sleep in the master’s bedroom – he is a dog, (not a human???!!!) after all – but last night, wild and crazy weather predictions were forecast for southeastern England (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-24690552) and I was worried that he would bark all night will all the racket going on outside. I am nothing else, if not practical, and I didn’t want to be climbing up and down the stairs all night telling my dog to stop barking.  Digger was delighted to be sleeping in my bedroom. What a treat!   The beta member (I, being the Alpha), +Georgia Allen often allows him to sleep in her room when she house/dog sits when I’m away. 

But lo and behold, the weather where I live wasn’t that bad at all, except there was a tree downed on the Nickey Line (http://www.nickeyline.org/) and it blocked out path this morning at 7:00 am.  This is a photo of the tree across the path with Digger and Jasmine (his Jack Russell friend) and Linda (my human friend of 12 years).                                                                                  

 

Linda and I have been walking together since Digger was born.  I guess you can say that Digger brought Linda and me together and we've been friends ever since.   She used to live down the street from me and, at 6:45 am before work, she used to walk her dog D’fer (as in ‘d’ for dog’. Bless him.  He’s now in heaven with my mom, whom he loved. He wasn't really keen on humans but he was sweet on her!). We often passed each other on the Nickey Line and in the winter when the mornings got darker and darker, we’d comment on how it was really spooky to be on ‘The Line’ and one day surely we would meet our demise via an axe murderer or some such nonsense.  Don’t get me wrong. The Nickey Line is wonderful and there have never been any axe murders on it in known history; it’s just that our imagination often got the best of us and we’d scare ourselves silly.  One day it dawned on us to walk together.  It was a match made in heaven!  I think I see Linda then more than I saw my own husband.  She’s a great friend and I love her loads. 

So you see, a dog can bring people together. Naturally, easily, effortlessly.  Without really trying. If you let him……clever Digs.  Wish I were that clever. 

Happy Birthday, Digger!!

October 26, 2001 - a historic event happened on that day.  A border terrier was born!  A very special border terrier who is loved and very much a part of my family. His name is Digger - or, The Digster, Digs, DiggerDoon, DiggerDog, DigDig - he's a fine dawg, indeed.  His official name from the breeders is ‘Buckley Star’ but yuk!!!  We had to change his name and struggled to do so. We finally settled on Digger, which is what his breed are supposed to do (dig a lot) but which he didn't start doing until about 2 years ago.  He is now 12 years old.  I guess should have started these monologues back in 2001; however, I still had dial-up internet, no real sense of what blogging was (did we have blogs that far back?) and I had just submitted my thesis and couldn't be bothered to do anything else but veg out, take care of my dog, and my family.

So here I am 12 years later starting a blog about my beloved Digs.  I didn't really want a dog.  I had enough to take care of with 2 children and a husband and I sure didn't need an animal thrown in the mix.  Besides, I grew up with cats (Pharaoh, Little Kitty, Satan – yes my siblings and I were allowed to name our black Korat cat and Satan is all we could muster.  Outrageous, I know.) and really didn't know the first thing about raising a dog. My kids begged for a dog, with all the promises of helping take care of him, blah, blah, blah.  But guess who ended up taking care of Digger?? Yes, of course – the mamma!!!  He became very much a mamma’s dogs and when he arrived in our home, I spent the month of December in my kitchen with him, opening the back door when he needed to ‘go toilet’ or cleaning up after him when he couldn't quite make it outside.  So the journey began, in 2001, with my dog in the kitchen.

Why am I writing this anyway?  Those of you with a dog will understand the immense pleasure a family pet brings to all involved and how you grow to love that dog, who is, more often than not, easier to be around than those you married or gave birth to.  My dear friend, Melanie, was a bit worried when I first got a dog.  I swore I would never get a dog and sure didn't want to take care of one. So when I got one, she was rightly concerned. Then one day, when she came to visit, she saw me with Digger, cradled on his back in my arms and I was stroking his stomach like you would a baby’s.  She burst out laughing and told me she couldn't believe how I was so ‘googoo-gaagaa’ over a dog.  She, who is a great lover of our fine, four-legged friends, said, ‘Welcome to the club!’  She never imagined that I would be a convert, a dog lover, a pushover for Digger. Those of you without a dog may think “I could care less about what this dog lover has to say about her dog, her family, her faith, her life”, so feel free to follow or not. But I have found, over the years, that my dog has taught me so much about what it means to be human, what it means to be a child of God, what it means to love unconditionally, to be a better parent, to be a better friend, to love me for who I am and not for what others expect of me.  I have come to realize that if God can use get a donkey to speak to get Balaam’s attention (Numbers 22: 21-31 in the Old Testament), he could use Digger to get mine.  I was going to entitle this blog ‘The Gospel according to Digger’ but I think four gospels are plenty enough!

So what I have learned from Digger today?  This, and every morning he eagerly awaits my coming down the stairs to greet him, to pet him, to ‘love on him’ and to feed him. He waits patiently while I wake up with my drug of choice (caffeine via a strong cup of coffee) and then jumps up when I ask him if he wants to go for a walk.  He’s ready to wait patiently when necessary, to come when needed, to seek me out when lonely, to allow me to love on him when and how I can, to forgive when I accidentally step on him.  I wish I could be more like my dog with my fellow human beings. 

The only problem with Digger is his breath.  Despite all the teeth cleanings and chew toys, he’s got ‘old dog breath’.  That’s one area in which I don’t want to be like him but who knows.  I’m not as old as he is yet.