Things I've Learned from Sophie the Dog...Vol. 1

I've got this dog.  Her name is Sophie.  She's fluffy, blond and just about the cutest thing you've ever put an eyeball on in your life.  The way I acquired Sophie was, ironically enough, at a flea market.  My friend Charlotte and I were on our way home from a weekend jaunt to Gulf Shores a couple of years ago and she suggested we stop by to see what was what at the Mobile flea market.  As we're pulling in to the market, she says, "You know they sell dogs here.  Maybe you'll get a dog.", to which I responded, "Hell no, I'm not getting a damn dog.".  Fifteen minutes later I met Sophie and obviously the rest is history.

Growing up I never had an "inside" dog.  We had mutts that never ventured past the door frame.  Even when Bob Breck said to bring in plants and animals, we'd bring in the plants but the animals had to fend for themselves.  We may have put some straw in a box in the garage but that was the limit that we went to the cater to the dogs.  Now I have this indoor fluff monster that looks like Chewbaca on somedays, I can't imagine what I did before I had her.  Some of you know that I would love nothing more than to have a child so I'm guessing, using the super powers of my useless psychology degree, that I'm projecting the love that I would give a child onto Sophie.  But Sophie, in return, showers me with unconditional love and that's what I want to talk about in "Things I've Learned from Sophie the Dog...Volume 1".

I've always had friends that have had some sort of canine living in their homes and they would tell me there's nothing like coming home and having that dog be so excited to see you that they literally pee on the floor.  She cannot wait for me to put down my purse and pick her up to give her a hug.  I know that she needs to go potty, too, but I'd like to think that she's jumping around like a maniac because she's so super pumped about seeing me, her master.  I just love that title.  I can yell at her, pop her with a recently chewed-on shoe or practically drown her when I rinse the soap out of her hair in the bath and she still loves me.  Sophie loves everybody, though.  Ask anyone that comes to my house.  She will attack you with love.  She shows no partiality to whose lap she jumps in or whose face she licks.  She is a 20 pound fluffball of love and it got me to thinking...what if society could love like a dog?

Think of the people in your life.  We've all got friends that we love and that love us back but don't you sometimes feel that there are those certain friends that are only friends with you because of what they can get out of you?  Or that someone is dating you because of the benefits that come from that relationship whether it be money or sex?  I've found that as I've gotten older, my BS meter is pretty right on so if someone is hanging out with me for what they can get, which by the way is very little, I can weed them out.  I only want people around me that love me for me.  Flaws and all and there are MANY, MANY flaws.  I want friends that are like Sophie, excited to see me and they get over things quickly when there's an argument and they're loyal but loyalty will be a whole other volume.

In closing I'll say this...look at the people in your life and ask yourself if they're worth your time.  My dog and the close friends that I do have are worth more to me than they'll ever know and I want all my special friends to know, that, yes, I do feel like jumping up and down and peeing in my pants when I see you and you know who you are and I hope you have a little leakage when you see me, too.