What's a dog for?

A friend of mine posted recently (aka awhile ago, but time passes in crazy ways for me) about a book called, What's a Dog For?: The Surprising History, Science, Philosophy, and Politics of Man's Best Friend. This weekend, I added it to my list of library books, as I am challenging myself to try to actually read a book instead of just articles online. And by "reading articles online," I unfortunately am actually pitifully referring to having several tabs up and reading a couple paragraphs of each and clicking aimlessly amongst them as I indulge my short attention span. Books have always been my way of calming down and focusing, so I'm hoping I can return to that.

Although I don't even have the book in my hands, its title is something that I contemplate often. After all, I have had a dog in my life of one form another for a short 1.5 years now and I'm not sure I can remember life before dogs. Alex said to me yesterday, "I don't think I ever want to not have a dog again." Sometimes things are more real when Alex says them because he tends to have fewer nonsensical thoughts than I do.

In some ways, you could say that we thought long and hard about adopting Bandit. The way that we should have thought of everything before we adopted Abby. We considered how right now really wouldn't be the perfect time to have a dog, as so many things in our lives are in flux. We considered how expensive it is. We even considered how owning a dog would possibly limit our ability to foster dogs as easily, or at least to foster one who didn't like other dogs. We did think of those things, as the responsible adults we strive to be (and often fail). But mostly we looked at the non-smiling face of what most would assume is the most serious dog ever--this dog who seemed to trust us to always be there more than any dog we had cared for--and simply realized that we needed to make it work. 

And so all that in the context of wanting to live a carefree young adulthood, to travel, to move around the country uninhibited does lead me to wonder, What's a dog for (anyway)? I don't know if I fully know the answer to that yet. People write all the time about the unconditional love a dog provides. That's true. But I think my love for Bandit is also related to the fact that whenever I am having these negative little things happen to me (e.g. broke my glasses), I turn around and he is rolling on his back on the floor for the simple reason that he is on carpet. Time to enjoy the glorious textures! I think having a dog teaches us what it means to take care of something thoroughly and thoughtfully, and that extends into other parts of our lives and we learn to take care of ourselves and our friends as well.