| Joy's Dream |
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JOY'S DREAM
| written by Tony Di Bartolo, my Dad |
It was dawn. Peter's house was not the wonderful place Joy expected it to be. True she was spoiled rotten, undisciplined, untrained and grossly overweight; but she was not happy, something did not feel right to her. She had no sense of belonging, no feeling of worth, no job to do or purpose to fill. She was just an object to feed someone's need for attention. This was not what she wanted or needed. She was tired of being bounced around, being passed from one family to another and in the process accumulating more frequent flier miles than a lot of humans do. Most of all and especially since she was an Aussie, Joy needed a job to do, or a place in a pack, something with clearly defined rules and borders.
Without them Joy, like so many other dogs can become bored and will find things to do and their own rules to follow which invariably gets them into trouble with their human caregivers. Especially so if those human caregivers don't have a good understanding of or foundation in canine behavior. They will do things like garbage raiding, chewing on inappropriate items or mindless digging. In deaf dogs like Joy, barking can become a major problem. The deaf dog only hears a very muted barking sound via bone conduction and does not realize the effect it has on others, or how grating it can become.
Joy was thankful that the last household (Peter's) had given up and let her go. This new house, the house in her dream was small and had a lot of rules, but it also had a lot of love and patience. She had her own pack now and even though she was not the Alpha, being Beta in this house was not bad at all. Plus she had that nutty Omega dog Eli to be friends with. He would let her steal his chewy away just about anytime she wanted, he never growled or snapped at her and he had danced with her in the snow storm, no other dog had ever done that before.
Joy stirred, becoming awake and realized that the past was past and the here was now. She knew it to be true and real when she stretched, rolled over and looked into the two bluest eyes she had ever seen.
| Eli's eyes. |
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