Gift Giving
Sun Chronicle, November 30, 2009
The holiday time of year always seems to run by at greyhound fast speed. This year is sure to be no exception now that we are about to plunge nose-first into thinking about holiday giving. I have always thought that it is better to give than to receive, and the thought of choosing the perfect gift brings to mind a recent experience I had with my youngest dog, “BK.”
After having a weekend afternoon family dinner get together, I decided to take my four-legged children out for a romp in the back yard at their grandma’s house. Selfishly, I was really thinking that if I moved around a bit then I might be able to make room for a second helping of my mom’s delicious apple pie. The dogs dashed to and fro around the yard while I envisioned forkfuls of cinnamon-y sweet pie.
From the corner of my eye, I saw my youngest dog slither into the thicket of the tree line at the far end of the yard. When I could no longer see her tail waving in the barren underbrush, I used a recall command to get her attention. As trained, when I called my darling, she immediately exploded forth from the woods and blasted over to me at top speed. I was very pleased with her, and I could see that she was equally as proud of herself as she pranced circles around me.
When I bent down to praise her, I noticed she was holding what was left of a long-since-dead bird in her smiling spaniel mouth. Bye-bye dreams of pie, hello black bird nightmare. Before I could shout for her to drop it, my princess lovingly placed the petrified prize at my feet and then adoringly stared up at me as if to say “a gift for you.” Then, before the “oooo gross” escaped my lips, she threw herself on the dried out carcass and began rolling all over the stiffened icky thing with the greatest of joy.
This delightful rolling back and forth over the dead bird was something that is known in dog language as the “roll of contentment.” Sometimes dogs do this in the summer grass or when playing with a favorite toy inside the house. The roll of contentment is the dog’s way of celebrating the glory of the moment. In an instant, I too was enraptured by this simple expression of joy from the animal perspective.
I laughed a giant laugh when I decided that my dog must have certainly been reveling in her very own version of gift giving. Seeing her with a few feathers stuck in her ears reminded me about how much fun finding the perfect gift can be, and all the joy that I have to look forward to as the holidays approach. I must confess though, I’m still giggling at the ironic twist of my dog-daughter bringing me a present from the very same woods where I used to dig up weeds and give them to my mom as Christmas gifts when I was a wee lass.
Mom if you are reading this, don’t worry: I wouldn’t dream of re-gifting the bird.