Older Dog Wisdom #13 - Getting What You Want

Tux and Grace got their Spring haircuts not too long ago, and it promptly snowed. They no longer had their shaggy Winter coats to keep them warm. I found myself being snuggled a lot. I didn’t let myself think I was being snuggled for snuggles sake. No, I was aware that I was the object of snuggling because I emanated heat - and I had the throw.

Tux tries to be independent. He works hard at it. For instance, as we speak, he is lying on his doggie bed with his back to Grace and I. We both know, though, that he has his favorite plush toy in his mouth and is falling asleep with it in his mouth. His back to us tells us that he’s aware that tough, independent Alpha dogs don’t sleep with their plush toys.

By the end of the day, Tux has had enough of being Alpha dog tough. He’s ready for some pets and snuggles from his Mom. So he climbs into my chair with me and we spend the evening together. He has to share me with my laptop, but he’s willing to give me that concession in order to be able to be close. He knows what he wants - an evening of being snuggled. He knows how to get it, too.

Lessons Learned

Too often we humans, unlike Tux, don’t know what we want. We have some vague idea of what it is, like “I want to be a best-selling author.” That’s a wonderful goal. Too often, though, we have no idea what it takes to get to that goal. Some think that all they have to do is write a book. While it’s true that in order to be a best-selling author, you do have to write a book, that’s not all there is to it. It may sound easy to some to say, “I’ll write a book.” It’s altogether another thing to sit down and do it. Writing a minimum of 80,000 words is no easy task.

Getting published is no easy task either. It takes perseverance and guts. If you can’t stick to it, sometimes for years, don’t go down the road. If you don’t have the guts to take rejections and to keep going after major setbacks, take the road more traveled. The road less traveled is sometimes full of travails that are not for the faint-of-heart.