do you feel lucky punk? well do ya?!

linked. in.

had a great conversation with a chica at the office today. about dogs. started by a third-party that noticed an obscure photo on my desk and suggested that i talk to aforementioned chica about pooches... bc, well, she has a dog that resembles mine. same breed -- same age and --omg --- same NAME! i smiled politely and nodded bc well, i didn't really have anything in common with the person in question other than we now share a type of dog.

third party went and muddied the waters by repeating the same information to the other like-canine-minded person and >bam< next thing you know we are chatting like magpies about the sweet quirks our dogs share. and then in another half second we are planning play dates. for our dogs.

then... conversation turns, her pooch is an adopted one, high-jacked actually --- her sister had this pooch and my coworker did not like the treatment it was being subjected to. not abuse per se. but definitely not love.

see, as it turns out, she AND i like myour pooches for their poochiness. yes, their barking on occasion will drive a monk to forsake his vows and the pope to drink --- but, they are loyal, affectionate, super happy ALL the time andtime and for-petes-sake just really entertaining.

i do NOT have dogs that will fetch. they dont grab a ball and beg me to toss it for hours [petting their bellies forEVER is a seperate topic] but for the most part they are simply happy to be near me and to feel that i and their 'peeps' are all accounted for. they are poochy. and also have the best parts of human too. they are sad and snuggly when i am down. twirl in circles and bounce when i am excited about something. and try their damnedest to ask me about my day first thing when i get home.

all the things that make a good friend a good friend.

OTHeR people enjoy un-pooching their canines. making them into extensions of themselves. scratch that. molding them into beings subservient to another will. which i understand. docile and obedient canines are a sight to behold. animals with incisors clearly meant for tearing flesh and bone domesticated into meek veggie-dieted trotting pets. i get it. some thrill there. not one i seek. but i get it.

my sister is one of those types. and has definitely expressed her disapproval of my pooch-rearing style on several occasions. most recently? and i quote " it is hard to not give [my dog] everything he wants, but instead what he needs to become a good man {uhhhh. what??} that can be trusted to make safe decisions, but the payoff is that he actually has more freedomto enjoy and be enjoyed by more people and children and experience more places in the world. and, he listens, communicates and trusts our fairness...no psychological delirium."

yes, perhaps i am drawing lines based on earlier conversations --- but it didnt take much to understand that, once again, the girls [my pooches] are somehow subpar and now subjected to psychological delirium. [i checked with them on this and they insist they are fine... keep the milkbones coming]

so back to the conversation with my co-worker. she has a eskie that she shang-hied from her sister bc said sister was subjecting HER chloe to will-bending and both parties were noticeably miserable. now the pooch is allowed to bark as nature made her. loves her humans and tries to please them bc reasonable, and ones that take her NATURAL tendencies into account, boundaries are set. my girls will never, ever be a slobbery, fetchy, waggy laborador. ever. ever. thank god. i truly believe that pooches resemble their humans. and i like what mine say about me. but i have completely gotten off track.

so the doggy conversation turns to sisters. and the intricacies that are involved in navigating familial relationships. and how attacking a single situation/problem/idea can lead to so many different possibilities and ideas-of-right. even in the case of pooches.

my sister has a different kinda pooch going on right now. the kind that is 5 days shy of a 9-month gestational stint.

and i am struggling, grappling, twisting, and barely maintaining a grip on the mentality that loves pooches being pooches. i want her to be the ultimate her. i have agonized with her through life experiences that had others attempting to bend her to their will. to make her into something that was less her. or just "other" than her. and in her truest form she is the single most amazing person i know. and she finally met a someone that does not do that. that loves her as is. and in some ways i feel a monster has been unleashed. no reasonable boundaries exist any longer.

its a conundrum.

but --- that coworker i mentioned? ---- the other common denominator we found? sisters that we love dearly and admire but that somehow, confusingly and confoundingly, managed to derail and head sideways on a path that is surprisingly self-centered and noncharacteristic. and from which we both are at a loss to address because, well, we prefer to love pooches and sisters as they just are. even when "just as they are" currently pisses the ever loving jesus out of us.