Stress Busters

We all need stress reducers in our life. Ah, what better relief than a pet. The feel of their fur between your fingers, the purr reverberating off your chest, the oh-so-adoring eyes staring up at you. It has been documented that pets lower blood pressure and cholesterol, cure depression, lower heart disease, improve mental and physical health. They might as well say they cure hemorrhoids and warts while they're at it.  Do these people even own pets?

My dog is a springer spaniel.  High energy, which is good because it forces me to walk her each night after work.  Ah, spring time, and we can get exercise after our long winter.  That will reduce some stress.  There is the smell of rain - rain and lots of it.  Gotta get the rain coat, the leash, the bags.  "Come on Katie, let's go for a walk." Five minutes is spent trying to hook the leash to the collar as she spins about my ankles. I open the screen door and go to shut front door while she proceeds to leap off the front porch pulling me with her and the screen door slams on my wrist. "Katie! Sit!" She sits. I lock the door and off we go. Now where I live it is goose wonderland.  There's a reason why the phrase loose as a goose was penned, but to my dog it just translates into the word smorgasbord.  Remember the game Pac Man?  Well that's how my dog walks; from one prize to the next while I'm turning green trying to persuade her to avoid these little treasures.

Summertime is good.  The geese have left and the field is ours until soccer season starts.  Ah, the smell of freshly mown grass and children running through sprinklers.  Well in my mind that's what it sounds like.  I know kids must exist, I'm just not sure where they are.  Holed up in front of a television, or computer or texting their friends, but all done in their air conditioned homes.  Because it's so hot, Katie gets extremely thirsty.  We bring a water bottle for her, but it's embarrassing when she tries to take water bottles from other walkers.  I apologize to the couple wearing white shorts that now have her paw prints on them.

Fall has come; the dang geese are back.  You can't step one foot between one land mind and the next.  She's like, "Whoo-hoo!  Snack time!"  I am fairly soft spoken and do not like to make a scene.  So first I'm just whispering, "Psst, Katie, stop."  After about a block my voice is more raspy as I hiss, "Katie, don't eat that!"  And by the end of our walk,  I look like someone who's escaped from a ward.  "KATIE, PUT IT DOWN!!!"

Winter has come, geese are gone again, but my dog can dive head first into a six foot drift and pull out, well, you get the picture.  I have fallen on sidewalks when my feet hit black ice just as Katie has spotted a rabbit.  My head hits a boulder of frozen snow where the snow has been shoveled off the path .  As I lay there stunned I wonder why I didn't bring my phone and hope I don't freeze to death before someone discovers my body.  I don't have any i.d. on me, but as long as the dog doesn't get away, they'll see our address on her tags.
Yes, she is frustrating, the vet bills are outrageous, the pet store portion of my credit runs higher than the groceries, but she gives my husband and I something to talk about and like proud parents watching over their children sleeping at night, we whisper lovingly that she looks like an angel and would probably do it all over again.  The fact that she relies on us, trusts us and loves us unconditionally - that, my friend, reduces my stress.