Doggie Friends

Living Out Loud, Volume 26: Tempting Fate

I’ve always thought that most things in life happen for a reason. I think our families are predestined as well as where we are brought into the world. I believe there is a basic scenario set up for each of us, and the choices we make due to our gift of freewill decides whether or not those events will take place.

I’m not going to bore you with stories I’ve already told like how I had prayed for someone like a certain person to love me and a few years later I ended up dating and eventually marrying him. Nor will I tell you the story of how I prayed for my life to be spared when I was held up at gunpoint, and God delivered me.

I’ve found that all of my life people have appeared at just the right times to provide me with something I needed. Some only stayed for that period of time, and others have become lifelong relationships.

The most recent thing has been a new friend to me, but an old friend to my husband. Life works in mysterious ways, and God joins us through the most innocent of circumstances. A few years ago we lost our devoted family dog of nine years. We were so lonely without our canine companion that we purchased a new pet within two weeks. Our new family member came to us in the form of a Labradoodle.

One day I saw a lady walk down the street with a Goldendoodle. I immediately ran out and inquired about her beautiful dog. We hit it off immediately and made plans to get our dogs together for a “play date”. Yes, I realize I am a middle aged woman with grown children who no longer need me to make play dates for them so I am making them for our new baby.

We got Wylie (my dog) and Jack ( the Goldendoodle) and his brother, Teddy (a Cockapoo) together. It was instant crazy, chaotic love! After their first encounter, Wylie would get excited every time we went toward their house…she assumed she was going to see “her boys” and would drag me into their yard. Every time we got together it would be the same exciting routine of sniffing, chasing, rolling, and licking.

After knowing my new friend, Nancy, for a month or two, the hubby and I happened to see her at the local grocery store. She looked at him a bit puzzled, and he shrugged it off.

The next time Nancy and I got the dogs together, she told me, “I know your husband.” I started laughing and assumed she’d dated him years ago. We are not from this area and she is, but I figured he might have covered some distance!

It turns out that they went to college together on the other side of Virginia. They were both in the same Forestry program. (Neither of them currently work in Forestry.) We have lived on the same street for about eighteen years, only separated by an intersection and a couple of houses!

To top that off, Nancy is a childhood friend of someone I worked with years ago. The three of us recently got together for lunch and each of us reminisced with Bonnie. I hope there will be many more of those lunches in our future.

Nancy and I are now tied together through our dogs, and have become fast friends. We’ve been able to support one another through some tough days lately. I think fate brought us together not only as friends but as the owner of dog friends. You just can’t hold back puppy love!

“Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.”
Roger Caras