I saw something in Red today I do not always see, the raw emotion of a therapy dog connecting with a human being in need of him or her. It is a powerful connection, strong, draining and intense. After our friend Mike left today, Red came into the house and collapsed, he seemed drained. It is hard to capture that emotion between a dog and a human, I believe I happened upon it this afternoon. I will remember it for a good long while.
I am working to train Fate not to climb on people or jump on them, and I am having limited success. Some people, like Mike, don’t mind, and Maria thinks I am not serious about discouraging Fate’s impulsive affection. She has very powerful instincts for loving people, and I am not certain it can be broken. I used a choke chain sometimes, and my voice sometimes. I don’t know if Maria is correct or not, and when I see an image like this, I guess I don’t want to stop it. Dogs are a reflection of what we truly want, I will have to think about it.
Fate is in almost constant motion, she misses nothing and wants to be in the middle of everything. When she pauses, and makes a human connection, she is the sweetest creature, she can melt hearts.
Some dogs have a gift for service and therapy work, there is some training, for sure, but you can’t train a dog to have heart or soul or the exquisite sensitivity required to connect with people in need. Our friend Mike came to visit us today, he is a veteran who uses a service dog to help him be safe and focused in certain situations.
He came to the farm Wednesday and watched Red and Fate work, and when he sat down to talk with us Red came over to him and stayed by his side the entire time he was here. Red has this gift to sense people who are in need of him, he can look into the soul of people who need his attention.
He didn’t come up to anyone else this afternoon, just Mike and I was absolutely certain he was sensing just what Mike’s dog senses back at home, and he was helping Mike be grounded and safe. Red always knows who to go to and who not to go to. This is not the result of training, Red has intuition that is powerful and healing.
He has the very special gift of the Therapy Dog.
Becca Addy, and now Mike, are special to us, and they graced us with a visit to the farm, interrupting their vacation to meet us.
This is one of those curious new world stories, a new kind of friendship. Becca and Maria and I have known one another for years and until today, we never met. She has a lovely blog called Becca’s Event Horizon: Re-Inventing Life One Step At A Time.
We have much in common. Becca and Maria have been communicating online for years, Mike came into her life a little over a year ago, her blog name became a prophesy.
Becca had much pain and loneliness in her life a few years, she was inspired by Maria’s blog to start her own, and then began taking photos and has become a classy photographer. They found one another online. They clicked with each other.
Mike is retired, and the two of them have greatly brightened the lives of one another.
Mike is a sweet and open man, they bought me lunch at the Round House Cafe and then came over to the farm to meet the animals and hang out for awhile. Mike is a veteran and has a therapy dog, a boxer, to help him cope with some trauma. It was striking to see Red sense Mike’s sensitivity and sit by his side all afternoon.
These two are rabid animal lovers, Becca works for UPS but pet sits on the side. I imagine one day that will be her full time work. Maria and I connected with these two, they are both quiet and shy, perhaps in comparison with us, but we felt completely ease. We spent several hours with them and were sorry to see them go.
When they left, we talked about how much we liked Mike, and how impressed we were with the way in which Becca – she is a co-administrator of the Creative Group At Bedlam Farm – has changed her life, and re-invented it in just the way she wanted to. Her photographs are very special. She has a lot of soul.
Maria was especially excited to meet her, so was I.
Becca is an inspiration to us, and another testament to the idea that online friendships can be very real if people work at it and are open to it.
