I suspect we give too little thought to the balance dogs can bring to one another. I didn’t really think about it when I got Fate, we both just looked at her Blue Pirate Eye and knew she was right for us. I thought I was getting another dog like Red, but it turned out better. We don’t need two Reds, we need and want dogs that balance one another.

We got Fate mostly to be Maria’s dog, and she spent almost all of her time with Maria, in the Schoolhouse Studio, walking with Chloe, out in the woods. But she is, of course, a family dog, as is Red. In a sense, the idea of a family dog belonging only to one person is a bit creepy to me, we are a family and the dogs are part of it.

We had a meditation day yesterday, Red is a meditative dog, Fate is not. But it worked out beautifully, as it always does if you let life make some decisions and don’t try and play God. While we sat in silence, Red was still, Fate explored every corner of the building, chewed on her bones, climbed into our laps, even sent to sleep a bit.

I was glad they both were there, they each added to our very rewarding day in different ways.

She was a part of the meditation, just as Red was, we accepted both. These two are dogs in balance, the Yin and the Yang. Sometimes we don’t know what it is we need, our best hope is to try and recognize it when we see it.