In Gus We Trust

Admittedly, I just don't have a bad angle when it comes to photo shoots. 

But, here I am, already off-topic. 

Walter Anderson, a wise person, once said: "“We're never so vulnerable than when we trust someone; but, paradoxically, if we cannot trust, neither can we find love or joy."


I know she has lost a lot of faith in her own kind.  The Jack Russell and I, by our natures, are incapable of letting her down in the trust department.  We are constant, and, in our constancy, she finds much of the love and joy she depends upon to remain in the living world.  No matter what kind of day she's had, or her mood, or her level of despair, she counts on us (as she did the ones before and the ones who will follow). 


But it's not all a one-way boulevard.  [And I'm not just talking about the dinners, the cookies the ball-throwing and the belly rubs here, although there might be some dissent among the ranks were those to be in any way disrupted.... ]  It's as basic to our animal existence to be counted upon as it is to count on our pack leader.  Without that, you see some pretty disturbed dogs out there. 


You see, I've come to understand that to be trusted and to trust cannot be separate actions if you want the whole Happy Meal.  It's less of a struggle for me than it is for her.  Vulnerability is as much a part of being a healthy dog as drooling. 

We keep her from being lonely.  We keep her from boredom and isolation.  We keep her heart pumping out love.  

But I wonder sometimes if we keep her from reaching out toward those of her kind.