09/24/2024
Ollie turned 7 years old today! Dedicated to all dogs. 🐾
I grew up without any pets (fish don’t count). When I was 4 or 5, I tried to play with one, took it out of the aquarium, made a tiny bed because I thought it was tired from all that swimming, and put it there to sleep. I couldn’t understand why my sister was so upset when she found the floating fish.
There weren’t many pet dogs around when I was growing up. Some families had cats, there were stray dogs on the streets, and only a few families had pet dogs, most of them were poorly behaved and untrained. As kids, we knew to avoid most adult dogs because of the risk of being bitten (which most of us were at least once), but we loved playing with street puppies - until they grew up and became those dogs to avoid.
When I was around 12 or 13, our next door neighbour got a Border Collie, named Colin. I was ecstatic! I could walk him on a leash and, for some reason, I craved that! Walking Colin made me feel cool. Other kids joined me and asked to hold the leash. I felt something special but I couldn’t explain it. Unfortunately, Colin wasn’t well trained, so one day he bit me and broke the skin on my arm. It was partially my fault but I didn't know what I had done wrong. I felt betrayed. After that, I stopped walking him. Following more bad experiences with aggressive dogs, I became afraid of them and decided I didn’t like dogs.
Once we moved to Canada and got our first house, we started adopting cats. Cats were familiar, didn’t bite, didn’t require any training and were “easy” pets. I’ve become a “cat person”.
And then something changed. About 10 years ago I started paying attention to dogs. We lived near a large off leash park and I would run alongside it while training for races. One day I caught myself wanting to be there with the dogs. That feeling surprised me. I told myself that it was a fluke and that dogs had no place in our lives - I knew nothing about them! But I couldn’t stop watching dogs in the parks and on the streets. Eventually, I started secretly watching a ton of YouTube videos about dogs. For a while I didn’t share this with Alex. I knew what he would say: “Dogs have no place in our lives.”
A year into this quiet obsession, I had an epiphany: I wanted a dog! How? Why? I knew nothing about dogs! How would I train one? How would we travel? How could we afford it? But once the thought was there, I couldn’t shake it. I wanted a companion. Even with no experience, I knew there was something magical about the bond humans have with dogs. I needed that connection.
I had two tasks ahead. One was easy-ish - learn as much as I could about dogs. The second was harder: I had to convince Alex… The good thing was that we’d been married long enough for me to know what NOT to do. I couldn’t just say: “Hey, how about we get a dog?”. That would end the conversations right there. I needed time and tact and a few tricks. Long story short, after a year, not only did Alex agree, but he got excited about the idea. That’s when we got Ollie!
Saying that our life has changed is an understatement. If you have a dog, you know. Humans evolved alongside dogs and we do have a special relationship with them. Maybe it’s because, throughout history, they helped us survive, find food, guard our homes and offer companionship. Whatever it is, a bond forms the moment you see them, touch their fur, laugh at their playfulness and look into their naïve and trusting eyes.
Having a dog is a commitment - it requires effort, worry, and expenses - but the bond you get in return is something you can’t find anywhere else.
Happy birthday to my best friend, Ollie
