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Some time ago, at a kitschy shop in Ellijay, I bought a wooden door frame topper that reads “Be the person your dog thinks you are.” It has since sat over the door that leads to our backyard, which has been a playground for our beloved canines for the last thirty-five years.

That sentence is indeed thought-provoking for us humans. If we’re good owners, we are superheroes to our pups. We feed them nutritious food on the regular. We shelter them from extreme temperatures and those who might wish them harm. We take them to the doctor when they’re sick. We protect them from diseases with annual vaccinations. We give them all the snuggles and pets they want. We forgive their trespasses. In short, we very well may treat them with more consistent love and kindness than we do our fellow man.

Because they can’t speak their needs or avoid starvation if left to their own devices, they are helpless. Fur babies are like human babies in that regard.  Because they can’t be reasoned with or lectured as even elementary-aged children can, it’s hard to hold grudges against them like we do with people. If we get angry with them, they don’t play tit for tat. They seek our approval and would throw themselves between us and danger. 

We should admit to often loving our fur babies way more than we do our neighbors. Twitter/X is a goldmine of humans’ true confessions regarding their love for their animals: “I say hi to more dogs than I do people.” “I’m sorry I can’t attend. My dog expects me home at a certain time.” “It’s time to get up and go to a meeting but my dog is too comfortable in my lap right now.”

If my spirits need boosting, I watch dog videos online, or “All Creatures Great and Small” on PBS. Or I call my dog over for some hugs. And nothing destroys me like ASPCA commercials, or when animals die in books or movies. I do find it troubling that I can be rather callous when it comes to fictional characters dying in various painful or tragic circumstances, but I blubber when a book or movie pet dies – even though I know there will be a disclaimer in the movie credits that no animals were harmed in the making of the film.

(Cat people, don’t be offended by my preference for dogs. I really have nothing against cats, but my mom is highly allergic, so we never had any growing up. I’ve never had any as an adult either, because I like my mom and want her to visit!)

As I ponder the unconditional love and forgiveness and affection that we extend to our pets, I know I need to work on those qualities in my interactions with people. I have forgiven my dogs who get under my feet and trip me up during thunderstorms, who get in my suitcase when I’m packing and leave hair on everything, who ruin expensive furniture, who get in the trash, who steal cooked steaks from the plate on the counter, who break into my neighbor’s yard and swim in their pool in the middle of the night, and who dig holes under the fence and ramble in the woods. But I might get unreasonably irritated with a person who slights me or inconveniences me or messes with my things. I need to relax and “Be the person my dog thinks I am.”

(In memory of all the good boys and girls who have touched my life: Sport, Daisy, Max, Corky, Phritz, Scooter, Chester, Lily, Rosie, and most recently Doodle. And in honor of my current rescue Gracie, who thinks I hung the moon.)