Happy as a Dog

The other day, which was the first day of school for most everyone, I followed a bus down the road and as it stopped to drop off the kids at various houses I began to notice the coolest thing happening. It was one of those moments where a video camera would have really come in handy.


As the kids got off the bus, their dogs were racing out of the houses with what looked like huge smiles on their faces running at full speed to greet them. They were jumping up and down and their tails were going crazy. At one house, a Dad was standing nonchalantly near the garage with his hands in his pockets and a dog came tearing around the corner out of the garage, ran THROUGH the Dad, taking his legs right out from under him, to get to the kid. He had this big goofy dog grin from ear to ear. Made me smile and laugh to myself – our pets greet us with more excitement than we do to each other.

Now I’m not a big PET fan, mostly because of my issues with OCD house cleaning, not because I don’t like animals, but after being a witness to this at almost every single house we stopped at, it kind of made me all warm and sappy feeling. I wonder if fish wiggle a little more when they see you come through the door?

I‘ve seen that dog smile before – it’s the same one when you pull up next to a car or drive next to one with the window rolled down and the dog in the passenger seat looking very much like a person, with this big goofy grin ….

When we take Jeep rides my middle daughter get’s that look. I’ll look back at her and do a double take – she’ll have her face in the wind out the side of the Jeep, with a big grin on her face and her hair blowing behind her. I always ask her what she is thinking about and she says just what you would expect – “Nothing, Just looking around”

Wouldn’t it be great to go to that place of no stress and worries, just the wind hitting your face and life is good.

Until a bug SMACKS you in the forehead!