Pawsitivity
Photo credit: Lindy Fields
The other morning I woke up to my pup (aka The Fitz, Fitzgerald, Mr. Fitz, Fitzy the Dood) staring at me…
Just staring at me. At 3am.
With his big brown eyes wide open, alert, staring straight at mine, as if thinking “Wakeup wakeup wakeup” and willing me to open my eyes. As always he had been well fed, explored outside, and had plenty of playtime the night before… meaning this intense stare is just him watching me, willing me to get up for the day, just waiting for our next adventure to start.
And, yes, this happens quite often…
I side eyed the clock, saw the bright red numbers lighting up in the dark, realized the ridiculously early time, and promptly drifted back to sleep. Or at least I started to, before being interrupted by the sound of a soft (but totally overly dramatic) sigh of a puppy dog who understands that the next adventure will have wait for at least another 2.5 hours.
Naturally, being the dog mom pushover that I am, I opened one eye, just in time to see Fitz’s eyes open wider, ears pull back, and head pop up tilting to the side, as if thinking “Goody goody goody – She’s up!” Thankfully, he seemed content enough just getting a quick scratch behind his ears and whispered praise for being a “good boy,” before we both fell back asleep. And when I woke up to the alarm 3 hours later, he was sprawled on his back, paws in the air, snoring... loudly.
Clearly The Fitz lives quite a charmed life. And I live quite the dog mom life, securely wrapped right around his big ol’ paw… but at least I’m aware of it, right? 😊
So the alarm went off and we both sprung up and into action – officially (or for Fitz, fiiiiinally) starting our day.
Which means me getting ready for the day, him following quickly on my heels, plopping down with a thud in every room I enter, only to jump back up and do it all over again... and again… and again.
We go through this daily routine together, while I mentally run through today’s agenda, mixing in things from my mental to do list: clinic appointments, working on research, editing an article, meetings, thinking (hopefully) of the next blog post topic, ordering groceries, and planning dinner. The other half of this early morning daily routine duo, aka the floppy eared pup following me around like a shadow, is – of course – just chilling, watching me, dozing in and out of an impressive number of brief naps considering its 7am, sniffing the ground around him in case there are treat crumbs lying around waiting to be salvaged, or daydreaming about his new puppy girlfriend who moved in next door.
As always, after he gets half a dozen more micro-sleeps and I keep checking things off on the to-do list, next up on the agenda – Fitz’s morning excursion.
As we run down the stairs, I’m calculating time backwards to see by what time I need to leave home to edit a paper before my first meeting. On the other hand (or, paw?), Fitz is racing/tumbling ungracefully down the stairs as if this is THE MOST EXCITING thing he can imagine. This looks like his limbs flying, tail wagging back and forth, tongue hanging outside of his mouth, until he literally starts bouncing and making some odd low gurgle grunt noises like he does when he’s excited.
So, clearly he is THRILLED, and today is a great day to be a dog – like everyday.
We get outside and start our walk, which means his nose starts a sniffing. He excitedly looks all around, nose wiggling, pulling his co-pilot (aka me – but who am I kidding? I’m just along for the ride at this point, he is clearly leading this charge…) over to his favorite field.
He frolics.
Then he sits. And he sits. And he sits… at a corner.
And he watches… just watches – you know, in case something really exciting happens…. like a car drives by, or someone walks on the sidewalk, or a bird chirps, or a fly lands on his nose, or he hears any sort of noise whatsoever – basically, anything that we as people tend to ignore, not notice, or zip past without a second thought.
So we frolic, sit, watch, and listen – and no, this is not a quick procession of events.
Then we waltz…. Well, not literally, but it probably appears to others driving by that we are doing some sort of new jig that doesn’t seem to have a sense of rhythm – we zig, we zag, I trip over him, he stops to chew his foot… and on and on and on.
He lets his nose lead the way, weaving us all over following the scent trail he’s on, while I follow, tripping over his paws, and laughing out loud, until we land at our next destination along this adventure… a beautiful arrangement of flowers….
Which means Fitz is sooooo excited, and I am eyes wide, gripping the leash with impressive strength, and panicked…. because The Fitz has a reputation and long list of run-ins with gardens and plants in the past…
Let’s just say he has on several occasions led me over to pretty plants and tall landscaping grasses, only to EAT said tall grasses and plants like he’s Yoshi in Mario World.
But this day he surprised me.
He just meandered around the plants, pausing periodically. Literally sitting, stopping to smell the flowers. Then looking to me – as always – with a big goobery smile, showing me what he found… allowing me to sigh in relief that these plants would live to see another day and that I wouldn’t be having an awkward apologetic conversation with the neighbor about yet another garden tragedy.
So we stayed there for a few moments, me scratching his head and us both looking at the beautiful flowers, smelling their aromas (me from a normal and appropriate distance, Fitz with his nose literally in the middle of the plants, which of course led to cute puppy sneezes for him and belly laughs for me). 😊
I hadn’t noticed the flowers there before, though I drive past them everyday. They hadn’t registered in my mind as a landmark, or a destination, along our route. I couldn’t have described them even if you paid me. But now I could – because The Fitz showed me.
I’ve practiced mindfulness for years – I’ve done the meditation apps and practiced yoga, and I know all of the benefits that mindfulness has. But mindfulness isn’t something that needs to be scheduled in a time slot, or an exercise added to the to-do list. It can be practiced at home, on a walk, and outside smelling flowers with your goofy little pup.
That morning Fitz gave me another one of his daily wise puppy dog soul reminders – as he so frequently does – to slow down and soak it all in.
To treasure the little things and enjoy the moment.
