Tag: dogs

“Friendship is a single soul dwelling in two bodies.”–Aristotle

What is more powerful than falling in love? Watching someone you love fall in love. Being witness to love’s beginning. Being present to see love deepen and manifest itself in a thousand big and small moments. Seeing “joy” and “unconditional” and “unselfish” become not just words that are easy to say, but actions that require thought, commitment, and responsibility.

Love changes the person you thought you knew. If you already believed that he was one of the best and brightest individuals you’d ever met, you come to see that love gives him new depth, greater potential, more honor, and a fierce ability to cope with challenges.

Today, someone I love coped with a devastating challenge without sparing himself any of the hurt that is sometimes a part of love. A moment like this can leave a person feeling alone and like there is less of him. But he is greater than he has ever been, and he is not alone. This love is part of his soul and will be a companion to him every day–for always.

I love animals…

…but oh, that Yellow Cat Next Door.

He lies in the middle of my driveway or the middle of our street like a poet having a bad day.

He uses our flowerbeds as his litterbox. Which might not be a big deal if dogs weren’t inclined to say, “Ooooooo. Chocolate protein snack bars!”

He sleeps on my front porch so my dogs can see him through the door and hurl themselves into paroxysms of cat-loathing rage. When I’m on the phone. Or sleeping.

He’s a sounder sleeper than I and can nap on top of the fence in the back yard while dogs try to climb the tree to get to him.

Saturday morning, he did a victory dance through his yard, our yard, and the yards of three other neighbors with a bird in his mouth.

That’s right: I’m living next door to murder in a fur coat.