{"id":4688,"date":"2012-12-07T17:28:27","date_gmt":"2012-12-08T01:28:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/?p=4688"},"modified":"2012-12-20T15:36:20","modified_gmt":"2012-12-20T23:36:20","slug":"my-dog-sister","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/my-dog-sister\/","title":{"rendered":"My Dog Sister"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\"\"<\/a>I don\u2019t know if Mom instinctively chose a puppy that was like her, or if the puppy chose her for the same reasons, or if it was all a coincidence.\u00a0 What I do know is that the tiny mixed breed puppy Mom named \u201cSimba\u201d looked much like a lion cub with reddish-gold fur and a black face and had pride and personality to match.\u00a0 She was a formidable lady, benevolent but alpha, exactly like my rock of a mother. My family had moved from a Massachusetts suburb to the wild Vermont countryside, settling on a long defunct farm complete with old wooden wagons and spiked metal tines hidden in tall field grasses, a decaying barn full of mysteries, and woods full of once lively logging trails.\u00a0 There were endless opportunities to run and explore. I stayed outside for hours on end, my mother knowing I was in good hands with Simba.<\/p>\n

Although we found Simba at a shelter, she was a queen without any question in her mind, and at four years old, I was already clear who was the wiser one of the two of us.\u00a0 There was something almost magical to me about the dog\u2019s confidence, and I can recall thinking of her as an older sister.\u00a0 By the time I was five and she was just over a year old, I was following her about and learning valuable lessons with her guidance.\u00a0 I trusted her wisdom because no one had taught me not to.\u00a0 No one had said, \u201cShe\u2019s only a dog\u201d.\u00a0 No one filled my head with ideas of animals being any less than me, lacking intelligence and running through life as near robots, functioning on rude instinct alone.\u00a0 I only saw the wise sister\u2019s confident dog grin, and saw her always looking back to make sure I wasn\u2019t lost.\u00a0 I knew if she told me something, it was true.<\/p>\n

Dogs can\u2019t speak like we can, but I knew what Simba said to me. She put her nose to the ground and moved with purpose, telling me there was an interesting animal ahead, and I must be quiet.\u00a0 Sometimes it was a woodchuck we\u2019d spy in a field.\u00a0 Other times she led me to partridge and flushed them, leaving eggs by a tree base to investigate.\u00a0 Once, it was a skunk, but the way Simba barked from a distance, I knew it wasn\u2019t anything I wanted to be close to. By watching her and learning, I became crafty in my own right, approaching or watching snakes, frogs, and birds with stealth until I could grab them with a quick move.\u00a0 I let them go after looking at them awhile.\u00a0 When I caught something, Simba would sit back and look at me with a wide dog-smile and squinted eyes as if I\u2019d learned my lesson well and she was satisfied.\u00a0 I lived for that look.<\/p>\n

She gave me sharp stares if I did something she wanted me to stop, and she refused to go where there was danger. On the second winter at the farm, snow pelted our rural north country and built up in record levels.\u00a0 It was days before I could look out and see more than a few feet ahead of me, but when the sun finally came out again, the world was a wondrous vanilla-milkshake-coated land.\u00a0 Simba said snow like this was marvelous to play in, and asked me outside by jumping and snapping at snow, then play-bowing before me with the mischievous twinkle in her eyes.\u00a0 I always listened to Simba\u2019s good ideas, so we raced out together, my human sister, Simba and I, bundled against the cold, holding sleds, and laughing wildly when we plummeted down fresh drifts with Simba running alongside grabbing my boots and pulling them off as she could.\u00a0 It made me furious in a way when I was left with stocking feet in the snow while she raced away, tail waving and thoroughly pleased with her catch, but I never thought of punishing her.\u00a0 She held rank, after all.<\/p>\n

Later, after retrieving the boots, my human sister and I thought we would spend some time exploring the barn.\u00a0 There seemed to always be a new discovery in there\u2014stalls and mangers where horses once fed, bits of metal that had unknown purposes, leather straps, piles of hay, dark corners and places you feared to walk because the boards creaked and groaned even under small feet.\u00a0 We had explored the barn many times with Simba leading the way and telling us where we should step and where we shouldn\u2019t.\u00a0 Mom always said, \u201cIf Simba won\u2019t go there, then don\u2019t go.\u201d Wisely, she picked the best paths and enjoyed the forays as much as we did even though she had to be the responsible one at all times.<\/p>\n

This snowy day was different.\u00a0 We approached the barn doors, my human sister and I encrusted with balls of ice and Simba\u2019s leg feathers similarly encumbered.\u00a0 Suddenly, there was a flurry of angry barking, and we turned to see Simba facing the doors, hackles raised and practically frothing at the mouth with fury.\u00a0 When my human sister moved to open the door, Simba snarled and snapped at the door again, and we both stepped back from whatever was agitating her so.\u00a0 Our parents were on the house roof, shoveling snow piled at least two feet deep.\u00a0 \u201cThere must be an animal or something in there!\u201d Our mother called down to us.\u00a0 \u201cStay out.\u201d\u00a0 She didn\u2019t have to say a word.\u00a0 We knew better than to disobey Simba\u2019s directives.<\/p>\n

The moment we turned from the barn doors, Simba stopped barking, but she continued to pace and behave like she was worried.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know what awful creature could be inside the barn, but I knew it was nothing I cared to face.\u00a0 Were there mountain lions here?\u00a0 \u201cMaybe it\u2019s a rabid raccoon.\u201d My father suggested.\u00a0 My human sister and I had carefully climbed the ladder to be closer to our parents on the roof, and there was only the sound of the shovels \u201cphloofing\u201d into the snow, scraping along shingles, and then the snow floating and landing almost silently on a growing pile in front of the house.<\/p>\n

The view was incredible, and I almost forgot about Simba pacing at the foot of the ladder when an ear-splitting, thundering crack pierced the air and then rumbled, vibrating throughout my chest.\u00a0 Our heads snapped up just as the sound faded, and we watched in awe as the roof of the barn collapsed, the sound first, and then the fall, caving in with almost slow motion with some of the walls following until what was once a majestic old building was nothing but a crumpled heap and a milk house standing alone.<\/p>\n

No one said a word for the longest time; at least that\u2019s how I remember it.\u00a0 There was no way for us to know the barn would collapse, but Simba had known.\u00a0 If we hadn\u2019t listened to what she told us, my human sister and I would have been inside at the very moment the beams gave out, and there wouldn\u2019t have been a chance to get out in time.\u00a0\u00a0 I can\u2019t recall what we did for Simba that night, but I know we would have recognized her deed.\u00a0 You see, my parents were never the kind of people who thought animals were less than we are.\u00a0 Simba was part of our family.\u00a0 She was my wise Sister, and I\u2019m thankful with my very life I didn\u2019t grow up with the message that she was anything else.<\/p>\n

Tanya Sousa Bio:<\/h4>\n

\"\"<\/a>Creating and connecting people with the idea that all living things deserve respect and kindness are the two most important threads running through author Tanya Sousa\u2019s life. \u201cI love Einstein\u2019s quote, \u2026if you judge a fish by how well it climbs a tree, it will live its whole life believing it is stupid, <\/em>\u2018 she said, \u2018because that quote not only speaks to different forms of human intelligence, but different forms of intelligence overall. All living things are amazing \u2014 just differently gifted.\u2019<\/p>\n

Tanya has written children\u2019s picture books (find her work at www.RadiantHen.com<\/a>), magazine articles, and has also published a number of creative non-fiction pieces and essays. Contact her at naturese@together.net<\/p>\n

Back to <\/strong>Stories<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I don\u2019t know if Mom instinctively chose a puppy that was like her, or if the puppy chose her for the same reasons, or if it was all a coincidence.\u00a0 What I do know is that the tiny mixed breed puppy Mom named \u201cSimba\u201d looked much like a lion cub with reddish-gold fur and a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":767,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,39,65,7],"tags":[145,140,120],"class_list":["post-4688","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-animal-companion","category-animal-wisdom","category-dog","category-relationships","tag-animal-compassion","tag-animal-wisdom","tag-relationships"],"aioseo_notices":[],"views":7178,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4688","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/767"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4688"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4688\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4688"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4688"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thriveinlife.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4688"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}