Depressed? Just get a Dog

This whole blog is the day's inspiration in and of itself. A friend's Mom, living with a once robust husband who now has Alzheimer's, got a dog and it has made her very happy. I have lived with someone with Alzheimer's and what you experience is grief, because that person you knew and loved is no longer there, or very rarely there.

This got me to thinking.

Did you ever realize that dog and God are the same letters in reverse? I bet you have known this all along LOL, but I didn't. Now here's the comparison. In life, aren't dogs just another version of God's unconditional love for us?

Granted you have to have the right personalities of dogs and owners, but I have to tell you, even a couple of chihuahuas who used to irritate me like mad when I was healthy and well, were my best friends when overcoming fibromylagia, brain surgery and breast surgery, with their warm little bodies curled up against mine, keeping me prone even when I didn't want to be. How did they know to calm down and come and lay with me for hours and hours, never once coming near an incision? How did they know to do this? Only God could have instilled that kind of loyalty and unconditional love in them.

The following story is true. It was a surprise little inspirational blessing to my life, told confidentially, by a business acquaintance as we sat drinking coffee a few years back.

The man I was talking to is a very emotionally and spiritually strong man, successful in his field. A few years prior, he had had everything taken from him, and he gave up on life. Depressed, he had decided to find a way to kill himself, and he went for a walk to figure out how.

On the walk, he ran across an abandoned, bedraggled, almost dead dog. He decided he had to save the dogs' life first, before killing himself. He took the abandoned dog home, and in mending the dogs' body, the dog's loving heart healed his own, and the once suicidal man decided to live.

Because the dog had turned his once depressed life around, the man recognized that dog was a gift from God. He wound up starting an unofficial abandoned dog savior club. He loves matching abandoned dogs found anywhere by anyone, with people who are lonely, or going through a lot of grief. Matching the lost with the lost. Like he told me then, if you have a dog jump up on you in the morning, needing to pee or poop, you are going to get up and face the day, rather than face the thought of stepping in, and having to clean up, pee or poop later on LOL.

"And of course, dogs are so much more", he added. "They give you this unconditional, God-like, love. You can come home and tell them all your troubles, and they listen."

So if you are depressed, or lonely, or know someone who is, remember this man's story. Drop by your local animal shelter ...just have a little looksie...it can't hurt you ;-) You just may find a best friend, direct from God!