Isn’t it surprising how many dogs look like their owners?
They say our brains are magnificent at recognizing patterns so maybe it’s the same reason we see animals in the clouds and a man in the moon.
I never noticed that with Moxie and I don’t see it in me and Whimsy either, but I’m always surprised by the similar behaviors we share.
Like me, Moxie always became cranky when someone encroached on her personal space. Whimsy loves closeness and cuddling, but we both tend to nip and growl trying to get attention in all the wrong ways.
Even more than the ways we’re similar, I’m amazed by how they act with a toughness I wish I had.
Moxie used to dominate the alpha of every neighborhood pack of strays as if to show me what assertiveness means. Whimsy isn’t that kind of roughneck, but she’s utterly unstoppable when it means keeping beside me on a trail.
She’ll scramble up an impossible slope if my horse has trotted too far ahead or she’ll plunge into a dark fast-flowing river if she sees me wade across. I would never put her in real danger but her strength and daring to get what she wants is marvelous.
It’s a determination that I envy and admire.
Tough as she is, there’s always a moment when she gets in over her head: like one time she tried to cross at the fastest part of the river and another time a slope crumbled beneath her as she tried to scramble up.
She never looks lost or pleading, never plants herself and never refuses. She claws and strains and swims or climbs harder.
She shows me how to be tough.
Maybe it helps her to know I’ll always be there if she needs me, just to grab her Knotted Harness and give the little extra she needs to get herself through it.
