Life rings

Do you remember the little round things with ropes they had on shows like Gilligan's Island or Baywatch?  People would be "drowning" and they would toss them out, saving the folk.  I think sometimes life gives us those as well.  Not always bright orange and white screaming, "hold on, I'll save you," but there nonetheless.

We have 2 rescue dogs-an overanxious spaniel/dachshund mix and a blind, mostly deaf, very cranky Lhasa Apso.  They are spoiled and pampered.  They live in the house with us, eat with us, sleep with us, but when we go to work, they go to their resort.  The garage is heated in the winter, air conditioned in the summer, with an entire bay just for them.  It is complete with carpet, stereo, chilled water, food, deluxe doggie beds, and the doggie door to their outdoor kennel.   If either of them liked the water, it would have a dog pool.  They go out most every weekday morning without any problem-happy and contented.

Today, I went out to the garage to bring in some freezer food.  The dachsie mix did his happy yips routine-three yip, spin three times, three more yips.  I was focused on my "had to do" list and simply found this annoying and noisy.  Bless his pointy little head, he diligently kept on-yip-turn-yip, yip-turn-yip.  I grumpily told him to stop, cut it out, enough, all to no avail.  I just knew that his antics would get his "sissy" started, blind and deaf as she is.  Lo and behold, "Yap, yap, yap," followed by a boing of walking into something in her haste to get to where "brother" was keeping up the yip-turn-yip patrol.  My glory, they were going to make me loopy!

I bent down to take his muzzle in my hand to correct him when IT happened.  His tail began to wag uncontrollably.  Just because I touched him.  He didn't care that I was grumpy.  He was thrilled to see me.  Yip-turn-yip.  I looked over at her, sitting facing the wrong way, she is blind remember, with her doggie grin, tongue lolling, yap yap yap, and the tail going 500 miles a minute.I sat right down and tearfully hugged my yip-yap life rings.   Once again, they had come just in time.

They came back inside with me.  He is now sleeping stretched beside me, with a sleepy tail thump-thump when I pause to scratch his belly.  She is laying, facing an empty sofa, totally at ease, snoring away.  There is more to life then drowning under the worries about the nickles and dimes.

The life rings come.  You might not always recognize them at first, but the life rings do come.