Mornings with Dolly: The Alarm Thwap

So my wife and two boys are sharing a room in a house full of the extended Fossum family. The Rick Fossums are in four twin beds in a long narrow room. Sort of like I’d picture in some sort of sea vessel. There is no door to the room. My first morning with Dolly was started with the unwelcome entry of Dolly clacking down the wooden floor and nudging her snout into mine. I probably shushed her away to which her reply was simply turning her head from me and showcasing the unceasing thwap-thwap-thwap of her tail against the mattress. On some mornings, this would leave me irritated—it is vacation after all, and it is only ten to six in the morning, for gosh sakes. But for some reason, this was a welcome sound.

Now I think I heard a comedian one time talking about dogs and the fact that they have no concept of time. And that they are as happy to see you if you’ve left for 1 minute, or a day—they are always SO happy to see you. There is an unbridled joy to a dog. And Dolly clearly was sharing hers with me via her tail thwap. So I went downstairs with Dolly with the dog walk in mind.

As I was sitting in a chair and lacing up my shoes, Dolly was tearing around the house excited to be up, excited to have people up, and excited to be a dog. My sister-in-law descended the stairs and non chalantly said good morning to Dolly. Now I was thinking that she’d have been something like “DOLLY, calm down!”, but she wasn’t. She immediately found understanding and pleasure in Dolly being a dog. I gotta admit, I found that quite cool. Too often we course correct things which may not need it, or even by nature, allow it*.

Dolly IS a dog. And a very excited and happy dog in the morning. Perhaps thrilled to go take a pee, but equally as thrilled to be awake and alive. I wanna see the morning like Dolly does. I wanna thwap my tail upon awaking.

*Clearly there is a time and place for course correction for both dogs as well as folks, but all to often we are critical and correcting when patience and understanding is what is required.