Who do you think inspired me today? Well, my beloved chocolate, Argo! Yes, you got it right; I am talking about my wonder here, a 5-year-old chocolate Labrador. He usually has this effect on me; he inspires me to do a lot of things and he also teaches me some.
Forgiveness
I remember him being a puppy, just arrived in our home. For you to understand this funny story you need to know that I love flowers; al kinds and I have some.
Well, Argo I think, he was kind of deranged by them and just decided one night to exterminate them all. He woke me up at 5 when I heard those strange noises of flowerpots falling down and breaking up in pieces. When I finally realized what was happening there, Argo just completed the mission. The thing is he just couldn’t understand why such successful missions could upset me that much. Well the only punishment that came to my mind at that time was not to talk to him for a short while. But then breakfast time arrived and I put his food in the bowl and said something like “eat now”. Ok, the thing is labs are much more stubborn than this and when they want to obtain something, they just do. He only touched that food when I sincerely told him that everything is fine and I forgave him and we can be best friends again. So, first thing he thought me was not to stay too much time upset with friends. When someone close to you does something that upsets you it doesn’t necessarily mean that the person was bad intended.
Pay attention to details
I would say that executing all my flowers was almost the only “redecorating act” Argo did to our home at that time. So proud of him, I became very trustful on his capacity of distinguishing good and bad; until the time, when I let my guard so down that I put his food very in handy for him. Labrador’s parents all know how greedy they are, even picturing a hunk of meet in everything, like the lion did in the cartoons. Well, mine makes no exception. He loves to eat (they say like owner, like dog). Saturday morning, like he just knew it was weekend, he didn’t wake us up, but thank God, eventually we did. Argo was sitting in the living room, no moves, no nothing, just sitting very nice with his eyes fixed on the bedroom door. Long story short, I saw the remaining food on the kitchen’s floor and immediately realized that he was eating until he just couldn’t eat anymore. I called his vet, rushed at the cabinet and problem solved. Doctor recommended letting Argo sleep that day and no food. And he also mentioned something about vomiting. Back home Argo was sleeping and all of sudden vomited in his sleep. Very astonished about what just happened he wanted to “attack” the pile of grain in front of him, but I was there. Next minute after this he was playing and running around the house but did not ask for food that day. That was the moment when I said I need to pay much attention to details, like where to place his grains.
Enjoy walking
Argo is the one who thought us that long or short walks during the day are a blessing. Let’s just say that you are in the middle of something, very concentrated on your work and he comes sits in front of you and just tells you that it’s time to go for a walk. You are sometimes tented to reject the proposal but you just can’t. This way he is happy and you’re happy because you take a few minutes break from whatever it was you were doing and perhaps when you return to your computer things are much more clear.
Time to play
There is a time for everything when it comes to our best friends. Argo for example has the time to eat, time to walk, to sleep and the time to play. He is not the kind that you just throw the ball and he will bring it back to you and you practically don’t need to do much. I know they say Labradors are retrievers, but not mine. One of his rules says that if you want something come and get it; and this is how playing becomes more funny and there’s not only one participant but at least two. The time you spend playing with your dog does good on both sides. He is happy and you’re in motion, doing some exercise, you’re happy.
Unconditional love
We travel a lot so Argo needs to stay at home sometimes and fortunately he has someone always staying with him and spoiling him so hard that when we’re back he is sometimes uncontrollable. But that is another story.
When Argo was a puppy, his vet thought us some important things that we always try to keep in mind. One thing was that when you need to travel, try to let him in his own environment so that he will not be so stressed. Dog love means also depressing moments for him when you need to leave somewhere without him. Putting him on a strange environment could be more stressful. Having this in mind I try as much as possible to take him with us or leave him home with a friend of his I would say, because Argo is more important to her than I am. Well, I am thankful for this and I believe that even though our best friends love us unconditionally we can give them a nice life in return and try to take care of them as much as we can. And speaking of taking care, its dinnertime; he just stares at me with this incredible face of his. I need to go now. I really hope you enjoyed this. Until next time J
