Sometimes Love Pees On Your Foot
How I Met My Best Friend
Senior year of high school my parents finally caved in, and agreed to get a family dog after years of begging. My mom had decided on a Cockapoo, which if you didn’t know, is a cross between a Cocker Spaniel and a Poodle. She started researching breeders, and once she located one, our parents gave us the official “We are getting a dog!” news.
I’ll never forget the excitement my younger sister, younger brother, and I felt the morning we drove out to Lancaster, PA to meet our pup. It was like 100 Christmas’ wrapped up into one.
Our Ford Windstar was hooked up with a VHS player, so you best believe we watched Beethoven on the trip up. Driving to the breeder, we bounced dog names off of each other, but nothing stuck. We knew we were getting a male, so we focused on boy names. Still, not one name felt like a winner.
Our dog naming debacle vanished the second we saw him. I’m not sure who yelled it out, but shortly after seeing our dog for the first time, someone excitedly said, “Rusty!” It was perfect.
We came home with Rusty, our new dog, our new best friend, and my inspiration for this post.
Unconditional Love
It doesn’t matter if I am gone for 5 minutes, 5 hours, or 5 day, when I return home, Rusty is there to greet me like I’ve been gone for years. Rusty’s tail shakes so fast that his entire body shakes along with it, and when approaching the front door you can start to hear him making excited doggy noises that I couldn’t possibly explain.
When opening the door his excitement takes him over and he basically performs back flips, all while holding a tennis ball or stuffed animal in his mouth. No matter how his day has gone, I’m always greeted in that same manner, and the same goes for my immediate family members.
He loves us. He loves us like people should love their loved ones. For 9 years now, he has shown my family and I an unconditional love that has not yet began to fade.
Rusty and the Pizza Boys Foot
Rusty gets most worked up for my family and I, but he still gets pretty excited when just about anyone walks into our house. During his earlier years, sometimes his excitement would cause him to urinate a little. This sets me up to tell one of my favorite Rusty stories.
One time when we ordered pizza for delivery, my mom made the mistake of inviting the pizza boy into the house. The combination of a new person in the house and the smell of food sent Rusty into overdrive. He ran up to the man excited as hell, and urinated all over.
Onto one of the pizza boy’s feet.
While this is funny by itself, what happened next makes the story.
With my entire family sitting at the kitchen table eating pizza, my mom grabbed a bucket and washed the delivery guys foot in the kitchen. Yes, it was awkward. Yes, it was amazing. Thank you Rusty for making it happen.
Why don’t people act like this when seeing their loved ones after only a day or two has passed?
Why does our excitement fade?
I remember being a young kid was so excited to see my parents come back after they were gone for a weekend or short trip. The same excitement would be felt when waiting patiently for my cousins to arrive for a night. I’d stand by the front door, or window, waiting for their arrival, checking every 5 minutes.
When they finally did arrive I would jump up and down in excitement.
That fades in people. I don’t know how, or why, but it does.
Show Your Love
I’m not saying you should start peeing from excitement, but show your loved ones that you care when you see them. Give your family members a hug when you see them, kiss your significant other every time when greeting them, and show your pets the same love they give you.
Rusty shows us the most amazing unconditional love, and that is exactly what he gets back from my family and I.
Do you really show the ones that matter that you love them?
Do you get excited whenever you see them, even if you just saw them this morning, yesterday or last week?
No?
Why not?
All You Need Blogger: Rich DeMatteo
Rich DeMatteo is the creator of Corn On The Job, a job search, recruiting, and HR blog. Rich is a Philadelphia area HR/Staffing professional with experience in both agency and corporate recruiting. Connect with him through Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, or subscribe to his blog .
Song: Ben Folds – The Luckiest
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