“I didn’t tell you this yesterday ’cause I was so upset,” said my husband Martin as he sat down on the edge of our bed. Panic started to rise up in me as I waited for him to tell me what was on his mind. Here we go. Martin and Ruffus were walking down our street, a delivery man asked Martin how old Ruffus is. ” Ten years old” Martin reported.” Ah yep, I thought he was an OLD dog,” said the dolly-pushing delivery guy. Martin loves Ruffus with all his heart and he dreads the day that Ruffus is no longer here with us.
Ruffus is our most beloved dog. On paper, he is a rescue dog from Cabarete, Dominican Republic. He found us on our beach after we had been brutally attacked at knife and gunpoint. It also happens that he had been abandoned. The truth is he rescued us from trauma and we gave him his much sought-after home and family. Read the full story here: Ruffus: The Rescue Dog or The Rescued Dog?
Anyway, as Martin sat there looking rather forlorn, I had a story for him that I knew would do the trick of cheering him up! It happened later on the very same day as the delivery man’s comment. Ruffus and I went to the BEACH, almost deserted as it was minus 14° and windy, but such details do not take away our sheer pleasure of a BEACH WALK. As we were turning back having reached the end of the beach, two miles from our starting point, Ruffus bounded up to two collie-like dogs. Their human was putting one of them on a leash. “My dog just wants to play” I offered. ” Oh, she is getting old and is nervous about puppies,” said the man pointing to Ruffus.
A Big Smile appeared on Martin’s face as I got to the puppy part of the story.
Puppy or Old Dog??? The moral of this little story is, what other people think is only what they think. It has to do with them not us. I find that to be so beautiful and liberating.
So much of our lives are spent worrying about what others think instead of focusing on what we think. It keeps us stuck in so many ways, like not setting boundaries because of what others will think, doing or not doing things because of what others will think, and being or not being who we really are because of what others will think.
For now, anyway, what I know to be true is that our beloved Ruffus bounds up and down the beach doing 360s, chasing seagulls and digging holes in the sand like a puppy. I am gonna go with that.
As always I hope that this little story is helpful to you.
With Love,
Coach Susy
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