Love takes many forms, and humans are fortunate in being able to express in poetry and song the depths of their affections.
In the past 10 weeks I have come to share my life with a kind and sensitive soul unable to verbalize his feelings on Valentine’s Day. He also can’t order rose bouquets, purchase heart-shaped candy boxes or mail out mushy yet heartfelt greeting cards.
Such are the shortcomings of being a dog.
I think I can intuit what it is the dog would most like to express to the folks who helped to provide him—a battered, beleaguered lost soul only two months ago—with a sense of belonging and heart’s ease.
His expressive eyes—as clear blue as the sky, from which his name derives—speak volumes and rival a poet’s pen.
Among the dog’s valentines would be Marilyn DeAngelo of Camarillo, office manager at Seminole Springs Mobile Home Park in rural Agoura. Upon catching sight of this dirty, scabby, weary, aloof and wolfish-looking stray rescued from the Agoura Animal Shelter, Marilyn planted herself fearlessly at the picnic table he was hiding under and flung her arms wide in welcome.
Still recovering from the injuries he’d suffered as a nomad in the hills above Thousand Oaks, the dog nonetheless struggled to his feet, wobbled directly into Marilyn’s embrace and burrowed his head in her lap.
What is love about if not acceptance and trust?
Surely Sky would wish to convey his everlasting appreciation to the animal control officers and volunteers at the Agoura Shelter, who saw the dog through his most trying days, when terror, confusion, loneliness and pain must have engulfed him.
Every person at the shelter involved in Sky’s ordeal cared so spontaneously and deeply about this silent, introverted dog.
So it was, too, with the staff at the Conejo Valley Animal Hospital in Thousand Oaks that initially cared for the injured dog. When he returned to the facility for a checkup, no longer a stray but newly adopted by me, the staff greeted him with jubilation, pouring out of offices and hurrying down corridors to salute his progress.
It was their diligent care at his time of crisis that had given the dog a second chance—to survive and to thrive.
What is love without remembrance of those who helped us in our time of greatest need?
One day Sky met a neighbor of mine who is busy with dual career responsibilities while contending with the stressful health issues affecting her beloved parents. Something about the dog’s stillness and gentle nature affected this always on-the-go gal.
Silently, she knelt and pressed her cheek against his thick, soft ruff. He remained motionless except to hook a paw over her forearm. They huddled this way for a long while.
What is love if not a connection between those with shared heartaches and hopes?
Often strangers thank me for “the privilege” of getting to know this blue- eyed creature, who responds to the attention they pay him with a unique catalog of tender gestures. I sense that Sky is, in fact, the one who feels most privileged of all—a dog rebounding from a nightmarish past to find himself feted at every turn.
It must be like a Valentine’s Day celebration, every single day of his new life.
~Via Moorpark Acorn
Tags: care, dog nature, human nature, Love, personal story, Rescue Dog
