My dog sat by my feet while I ate oatmeal and drank coffee each morning last weekend. Oddly, coffee is just about the only thing that Izzy finds repulsive. She’ll give it a sniff, but always steps back in disgust.
On Sunday, I caught myself talking to her—it wasn’t the first and won’t be the last time—asking if I should mow the lawn or do laundry first. She spoke back, and I tried to understand, but I can only imagine what she tried to say.
With her head shifting first to the left, then right, I know that Izzy always listens intently. A recent Associated Press-Petside.com poll of pet-owning married women said that their pets are better listeners than their husbands; eighteen percent of pet-owning married men said their pets are better listeners than their wives.
Listening seems like an easy thing to do, but it isn’t. I sometimes catch myself interrupting, completing someone else’s sentence, especially when I sense where it’s going. In my mind, I’m showing that I’m engaged, that I understand what they’re saying, but I know this not to be true. Listening without interrupting ultimately shows genuine interest.
I have a lot to learn from Izzy. When she barks from now on, I’m not going to interrupt her. Maybe, if I show that I’m listening, she’ll take it down a notch.
3 Comments
Consuming flies can be a good thing, when you are ‘invaded’ by them, October, my house, can I borrow her for lets say a week?
Re: Laundry, have you tried a bacon-scented fabric softener?
LOL. This is the perfect visual story, I can just picture how the convo took shape. Now if you could get Izzy to mow the lawn or do your laundry….heaven ; P
@javasnuggies She likes carrying socks downstairs, which is a good laundry reminder, but I can’t convince her to do anything more than catch and eat flies.