She’s been around through some of the hardest and most spectacular times in my life. She has comforted me when I’ve cried and joined in on dance parties when I’ve celebrated. She has lived with me in 5 different states. She can be too smart for her own good. She is the best cuddler I know but has a problem with bed wetting. She loves to run but has no patience for my hobby of running just for the sake of it. She’s a great listener. She has a mouth on her, but only really in front of her friends. She thinks naps are just about the greatest things in the world. This superlative also extends to basking in the sun, unattended food, road trips, the doorbell, a window with a view, belly rubs, “Sheepy”, peanut butter, great escapes, and quiet days spent at home with me. She is very serious about the responsibility of keeping the kitchen floor free of minute food particles, often as soon as the misplaced ingredient hits the ground. She takes direction well… if she feels like it. She sits, plays dead, stays, stands at attention, jumps, speaks, rolls over, and fist bumps… if she feels like it.
She’s Emma, my Jack Russell terrier / beagle mix of a pup. She’s one of the happiest, most loving dogs I’ve ever known. I’ll always jump at the chance to play with someone’s pooch during an engagement shoot or a wedding or a pet session (there might be a shoot with a certain Old English Bulldog in the future).
This month marks Emma’s 9th birthday. I’ve had her since she was just a few months old and, despite the vet bills, boarding, puddles, and furry dust bunnies the size of more Emmas, I couldn’t imagine life without her. No matter how long I’ve had to leave her for a wedding, no matter how many times she has to remind me to fill the dog bowl (listen, lady, I’ve carried it all over the house!), no matter how scruffy I let her get before I take her to the groomers, no matter how many times she has been stuck with needles or forced to take medication (she has epilepsy), there is always a wagging tail. Always.
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The dogs in our lives, the dogs we come to love and who (we fervently believe) love us in return, offer more than fidelity, consolation, and companionship. They offer comedy, irony, wit, and a wealth of anecdotes, the “shaggy dog stories” and “stupid pet tricks” that are commonplace pleasures of life. They offer, if we are wise enough or simple enough to take it, a model for what it means to give your heart with little thought of return. Both powerfully imaginary and comfortingly real, dogs act as mirrors for our own beliefs about what would constitute a truly humane society. Perhaps it is not too late for them to teach us some new tricks.
~ Marjorie Garber
