I was especially proud to see a group of owners from the Lutheran Church Charities in Illinois truck 10 of us on a 800-mile road trip to Newtown, Conn., where we tried our best to console anyone who was grieving from the terrible loss of life there, which of course happened to be everyone.
Dogs are not proud by nature. We were ourselves at the funerals, we were ourselves on the streets, we were ourselves in the shops and at church. When people wanted to talk, we listened. When they wanted to pray we listened. When they wanted to cry, we snuggled up and then we listened some more. Theo Chipkin doesn’t do
Oh we’re proud to be dogs all right, as opposed to say, voles, or sea slugs. (please no letters from the slug lobby. I’m sure your parents love you.)
And we carry ourselves proudly, by which I mean with good posture, which comes mostly from maternal nagging and which I’m counting on to come in handy someday when I spot a squirrel who just might faint away at the sheer majesty of my stature, since frankly I don’t see any other way I’ll ever catch one.
But there’s a natural limit to how much we can be proud of our accomplishments because besides bringing joy to the world, we don’t actually do much. It’s that opposable thumb thing again, coupled with a certain problem with long-term memory that polite dogs generally don’t bring up because we actually like hearing the same stories over and over.
Mostly we go where our owners take us which is why I was especially proud to see a group of owners from the Lutheran Church Charities in Illinois truck 10 of us on a 800-mile road trip to Newtown, Conn., where we tried our best to console anyone who was grieving from the terrible loss of life there, which of course happened to be everyone.
The nice things about dogs and road trips is that you never have to ask twice. And no one had to tell us what to do when we got there, which was just to be ourselves.
“Dogs are non-judgmental. They are loving. They are accepting of anyone,” said organization president Tim Hetzner, in a pretty good paraphrase of the canine code. “It creates the atmosphere for people to share.”
One of the dog handlers called us a natural bridge from sadness to comfort.
We’ve certainly been called worse, especially when we slobber. It’s hard to pinpoint just what it is about us that seems to bring such comfort to humans. Maybe it’s that since we can’t talk; we really listen. Then again, maybe it’s because we’re so darn cute.
For dogs, extending comfort is as natural as a walk in the woods. Thank goodness, I’ve never been called upon to offer comfort under such tragic circumstances, but in my own corner of the world, I’ve comforted friends, family members, and once when my master fell in the snow while we were walking I refused to leave his side until I knew he was all right. True, it’s not exactly Lassie and the silver mine stuff, but you don’t have to save the world all at once to make it a little better bit by bit. Sadness come in all sizes and in the end, so does comfort.
And even if the pain isn’t the sort of thing that can be cured by a warm nose, at least dogs know it will never be for lack of trying.
The comfort-dog initiative first started in 2008 at Northern Illinois University after a gunman killed five students. A group of dog caretakers associated with Lutheran Church Charities trekked to campus in hopes of providing a distraction to the student community. When not responding to a national tragedy, the Illinois retrievers will often visit people in hospitals, nursing homes and parks. Each dog carries a business card with its name, Facebook page, twitter account and email so those that meet the canine can keep in touch.
Dogs with business cards, doing good. Now that’s enough to make any dog proud.
Not of us. Of you.
Take comfort; hug a dog.
See you in the comfort zone.
email, but he can be reached
through his agent at rchipkin Â
@repub.com
In this Tuesday, Dec. 18, 2012 file photo, Addison Strychalsky, 2, of Newtown, Conn., pets Libby, a golden retriever therapy dog, during a visit from the dogs and their handlers to a memorial for the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting victims in Newtown. As the shock of Newtown's horrific school shooting starts to wear off, as the headlines fade and the therapists leave, residents are seeking a way forward through faith, community and a determination to seize their future.