National Mutt Day...how about sharing your life with a dog?

Today is National Mutt Day!

You may not connect the dots on this one and see what in the world National Mutt Day has to do with MajorUpbeatMe, but it has everything to do with it.

Did you know that sharing your life with a pet is really good for your health? It lowers your blood pressure and makes you a happier person. Your dog helps you get off the couch, go for a walk and get some exercise. This doesn’t even take into consideration that you’re giving a good home to an innocent animal.

I have only ever shared my life with mutts; no purchased pedigrees for me. I have found my dogs on the street, or they have found me, I should say…I have adopted my dogs from shelters; I have found dogs who have been hit by cars whose owners didn’t want them because they didn’t want to pay for their medical bills and let them go to the pound to be euthanized if not adopted. These dogs enriched my life; sometimes they challenged me, and by doing so, they made me a better person.

One of my dogs who showed up on my doorstep ended up on anti-depressants to help him deal with life as he had obviously been abused. We discovered a particular trigger for him was young boys in baseball caps. I think we can both connect the dots on that one. The funny thing was that I was on anti-depressants at the time to try to manage my own depression. Please see my post on conquering depression at my flagship website http://ThinStrongHealthy.com for more about this. I had to be careful not to run out of his prescription and mine at the same time. It would have been pretty weird to have to call the pharmacy and say, “I need to refill the anti-depressants for my dog and me”.

I love mutts. They are like we are here in this country. We are all mutts; we are a combination of different countries and origins, and we are richer and more interesting for it.

I lost my last dog over four years ago. She was 17 ½ when she died. In the photo above, she had just turned 17. I adopted Chloe from the Buddy Dog Humane Society in Sudbury, MA, when she was 4 ½ years old, and I miss her to this day. I can still remember how she smelled. I would bury my nose in her coat and try to memorize her knowing she would not be with me forever. We shared our lives with her; there was no ownership involved. We would only have it that way; she demanded and deserved it with her intelligence, her strength and her stubbornness. Letting her go was one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. She is a part of me as are all my mutts. I remember each and every one of them.

Today, I celebrate National Mutt Day. I encourage you to adopt, don’t shop. The need is great for kind, loving forever homes for our companion animals. They are not the only beneficiaries though. A MajorUpbeatMe life is about the golden rule; it’s about doing the right thing…doing good in the world and feeling good and upbeat because of that.

I feel the need of a new mutt in my life coming on in the near future. I’m sure a wonderful dog who needs me will find me; they always do…