He
has big black eyes and a small flat nose cute as a button. He tries to act cool and not show any
emotion. When he sees me put my coat on,
he follows me and waits for me to say goodbye; and when I come back, he is at
the door, waiting to welcome me home. I
get angry with him sometimes, and I might yell at him. He just walks away, glancing back at me with
those big black sad eyes. As soon as I
calmly call his name, he runs and sits next to me waiting to be caressed.
He
is quiet most if not all the time. He
doesn’t say much but his love towards me shows in everything he does; from
staring at me adoringly to his happy trot next to mine. Sometimes he doesn’t eat his food and I have
to hand feed him; but if I put some boiled chicken in his bowl, he will happily
and eagerly inhale it.
When
he pinched a nerve on his back, I faithfully gave him his medication. He didn’t like taking it and acted hard to
get, so, I had to shove it his mouth. He
travelled with me to Greece and Florida and happily came along. It didn’t matter where he was as long as he
was with me. He did not like being left
alone at my mother’s apartment, and I almost lost him. He got trapped at the grocery store next
door, and I was able to grab him. I got
mad at him and spanked him on his butt.
He turned his head and looked at me sadly with those big eyes as if
saying: “I’m sorry mommy”.
He
has a large basket full of stuffed toys and when he gets bored, he takes each
and every one of them out. On occasion,
my family room floor is full of his toys and I have to hop to get around
them. I try to put them back in the
basket but he takes them out again or tries to grab them from my hand. So I put them away when he is sleeping or
when he is outside and I hope he won’t have his extra sensory hearing and wake
up or run back inside to stop me.
I
cannot take his blanket away. It’s
his. He gets upset when I put it in the
wash; but he is very happy and drags it on the floor as soon as I take it out
of the dryer.
His
love towards me is unconditional. He
doesn’t care if I yell at him, if I leave him alone for hours or just
minutes. He doesn’t have any concept of
time. He is always happy to see me come
back. As much as he tries to act cool, to
show that he doesn’t really care, his little tail gives him away. It starts slowly. The tip of his tail starts trembling, like
the tail of a rattle snake, and slowly the movement moves all the way to the
body of the tail. Then the wagging
becomes stronger, and if you put your face next to it, it will cool you like a
fan. He thinks that you don’t notice;
but you know and you notice. You realize,
that no matter what you do to him, yell at him or scold him like a child; get
mad at him for throwing up on your rug, because he didn’t like the food; or for
letting go some urine because he didn’t scratch the door on time for you to let
him out, he will still love you; and he will love you unconditionally. He will run around in circles to show you how
happy he is to see you; or lick your hand till it’s raw to show that he
appreciates you taking care of him, for feeding him and giving him a roof over
his head. This is what I call
Unconditional Love.
