Man’s Best Friend
August 4, 2006
I have to admit, I’ve never owned a dog until now. On the contrary, my husband has had a connection with animals since he was a child. He grew up with dogs, cats, rabbits - they are his favorite - and just about any kind of animal a kid in Florida would interact with. He even told me a story about how he would bring abandoned cats or dogs found on the streets, or birds that were injured home. He would nurse them back to health or until his parents found out, but for me, animals just never clicked like that. At least, not until now.
It’s not that I didn’t like animals. I mean, I had my fair share of turtles and imaginary snakes (yeah, not your usual pet!). But when it came to cats or dogs, I guess our living situation never really permitted to have them. We traveled a lot and my school was very demanding. I had piano lessons and Saturday Japanese school and daily Japanese kakitori - learning how to read/write kanji according to your grade - to deal with. We would take month long vacations and maybe that’s why it never occurred to have a companion. But most of all, I think it was because I was afraid of getting attached to something that would eventually die.
So when we moved to Miami in 2003 and my husband wanted was a puppy, I was a bit reluctant. I wasn’t sure if I was ready for this commitment or all the things I would have to deal with. Luckily for him, his cousin found a girl and a boy puppy barely ready to be taken away from their mother. He fell in love with the girl, and we took her in. My mother-in-law named her Aski from my name, Asuka. So there she was, ready or not, my first dog, Aski.
Aski was a very sick puppy. It took 3 adults around the clock to nurse her back to health. My husband told me later that he and his mother never thought she would make it. But for whatever reasons, she survived, turning out to be a very intelligent, sweet dog, who loves people and doesn’t have a mean streak in her.
Since she’s a mutt, we didn’t know what she really was. We suspected her to be a German-Shepard mix because of her distinct ears and features, but you could also see a softer face, which the vet told us must be from a Chocolate Labrador. Aski is a mid-size dog so she lets me lean on her when she’s on the couch. She doesn’t move or grunt and lets me do whatever I want. She loves the bed, loves to be carressed on her lower tummy and loves going “outside”. That was the first word I ever taught her, along with “comida” - meaning food in Spanish - and “paseo” - to walk.
The longer I spend time with her, the more I realize that dogs are pretty darn smart. I’ve heard that some of them possess the intelligence of a 3-year-old child. They recognize their name, they’re always happy to see you, and they worry about you when you’re crying or sick. The word, “unconditional love” is what best describes them. They develop personalities and characteristics just like people, and they reciprocate the love you give them and more, back to you.
Now that I know how it feels to have a wagging tail waiting for me when I come home, I don’t think I could ever live without it. Yeah, it’s true, dogs are pretty high maintenance. You have to walk them, feed them, take care of them daily, and eventually, their time will come. But to use my husband’s words, dogs just have different life spans than humans. We live longer than they do, so we’ll have to deal with the loss, but what more could you ask for than sharing a life of love and happiness? And that warm fuzziness you feel when you see them, I think is worth anything!
Technorati Tags: pets, dogs, love, companion, companionship, happiness, german-shepard, labrador
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