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Written on January 3, 2017. Jon Snow was 6 months old, 25 lbs.
He’s tearing my world apart.
My apartment is no longer mine.
This is normal puppy behavior. What’s NOT normal is for me to be gentle and non-reactive while someone’s messing up my stuff. I’m standing here watching him piss on my carpet, and all I can think is, “aww, poor puppy, couldn’t hold it in. Poor boy!” So far, Jon Snow has chewed up my owl feather, knawed on a hawk claw, knocked over the Christmas tree, tried to eat the Christmas lights, ate sacred prasad (chocolate kisses: dangerous!) left over from my visit with Amma, turned my talismans into toys, tried to eat tinsel, pulled the shag rug apart, and peed on my bedroom carpet. I know he’s not doing these things to be “mean”. He’s not “bad”. He doesn’t have a malicious bone in his body. He just doesn’t know any better.
Here’s the thing: Most of my life I’ve brutalized myself for my mistakes. Jon Snow is a great tool for me to practice compassion, non-reactive understanding, and unconditional love. I thought I was training him but really he’s training me. He’s training me to be more loving and compassionate.
I think Jon Snow is more of a role model than anything. I WISH I were more like this pup. Maybe the point of this relationship is that he’s teaching me how to be more playful, more open-hearted, more trusting, more loving, more patient, more excited and exuberant in life. I’ve sought out and met quite a number of sages and saints in my life, but I never could cultivate the requisite virtues within myself. I think God said, “sigh, Greg just ain’t getting it. We need to dumb it down for this guy. Let’s send in the dogs. In fact, let’s send him our top pup. Jon Snow ought to be able to handle a tough case like Liotta.” I got lucky. No doubt, this pup is a better person than me by a long shot.
I’m so grateful for this teacher.
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Photo courtesy of the author.
