Y Ddraig Goch

April 29 2025 - Dog's Life

Prompt: My goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog or cat thinks I am. Anonymous.

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I have a dog. A Japanese Akita called Indy, who is thirteen years old. We have had her since she was an eight-week-old puppy. We house trained her, taught her to walk on a lead, took her to puppy classes, and vet appointments. We have panicked when she was unwell and spent far too long discussing her toilet habits/movements. We brought her across to Australia when we emigrated. Now that she is old and has arthritis, I even walk downstairs with her because it makes her nervous and has her hackles standing to attention. We have tried stair-gates - but you try telling a 50+ kg fur-baby she can't sleep in the same room as her mum.... because she is my/our fur-baby through and through. My children often ask which of them is my favourite and my answer is always "Indy".

Does she think that I am a good person? Maybe... Does she love me unconditionally and put up with my weird humanisms regardless...? Most definitely.

For an animal with two, thick coats her face is extremely expressive. The undercoat on her head and muzzle is dark, while the topcoat is fawn/white - this makes it blatantly obvious when she is frowning at me because she looks like a Klingon, and I swear if she had eyebrows, she'd be imitating the Rock and the "people's eyebrow". Combined with the not-so-subtle huffs, I know exactly when the grumpy old girl is over my antics. For reference, antics can be as simple as stepping over her to get to the bathroom when she decides to block the whole hallway to go to sleep... The audacity!!

However, she gets her own back frequently when SHE decides it's time to pay her attention. She'll sit in front of me and yowl (think Husky but without the sirens). She'll have a whole conversation. Telling me in no uncertain terms how she is neglected and demands pats. Sometimes she will use her "I need water", or the "where is my food", or even the "let out I need a wee" voice - it's a trick! As soon as I'm up she lies down and does the puppy eyes.

The truth is that there isn't much I wouldn't do for her. I am that person that would go to war for her dog. Heck, I'd probably start one for her.

I wouldn't say that my goal in life is to be as good a person as my dog thinks I am; because I think Indy knows exactly who and what I am, and she is fine with my brand of crazy. My goal is to make sure she knows how loved she is and that the time we have left with her is well spent.

So, despite being woken up at 2am to let her out for a wee or because she just fancies sniff the air, and despite the fact that she has (literally) just gone into the bin to extract the roast pork wrapper and devour its content (guess I'll be checking for butcher's twine later on in the garden...). I am so grateful she is in our lives and part of the family. And I will spend the rest of her reminding her of that fact!