Three Days In! (Only three?!)

Hello All!

I can’t tell you the difference I have seen between Cor, Yaha, Ozzy, and Daisy.

For those that don’t know, Daisy was my dog before I started on this service dog journey.

Let me preface this by saying I love all of them. They have brought such memories into my life as I will never forget. 

Daisy showed me just how much nonverbal love is, and that language–while a tool nothing else can compare with–isn’t a limit on so many things. 

Ozzy showed me that ‘fetch’ is, in fact, an actual game dogs will play. Lol! He also showed me that love doesn’t mean qualification or compatibility. I loved Ozzy but that didn’t mean I would be able to work with him or that he would be able to do what was required. For someone who can take in the meaning of things, and work with facts while never letting the truth sink lower than mental level, sometimes I need a good, painful lesson, as much as no one ever wants one. Ozzy provided that, and I can’t hold a student’s pain against a teacher who never meant to give it.

Yaha showed me that, sometimes, love and loyalty doesn’t lead to a forever. He showed me that being able to do something doesn’t mean you should. That swallowing a flaming sword is a trick you can do, but only once.

Cor? He’s shown me just how little I understood when I was starting out.

While Ozzy was running around all day the first two days we had him, and Yaha didn’t nap at all the first few weeks he was with us, Cor will go and put himself down for bed all on his own. In his crate, yes, but he’ll also curl up on the floor, fall asleep under my chair at the table, or, as is the case as I write this, on the back porch at my feet.

While Ozzy ate a bird within the first fifteen minutes in our backyard and Yaha had a problem with anything who looked at me wrong, Cor has simply watched birds and dogs from a comfortable throne. (Read: my arms.)

However.

Cor has also shown me, again, that those perfect, bomb-proof dogs aren’t a natural state of being. Lol!
🐶

(We’re still working on complete house-training. And not stealing the obstacle course pieces.)

Nor do they all have the same tastes. Although, in all fairness, maybe his first apple shouldn’t have been a Granny Smith. 🙂

Another way Cor differs from the other two, aside from letting me write this and work during the day, is that plush toys aren’t destroyed within the first five minutes. His little dragon has lasted three days and is still going strong! Same for his rope toys and cow trachea chew!

With Yaha it was Kong or nothing, and four to five antlers a month! I’m honestly not even sure what Ozzy would’ve needed. 🙂

Tl;dr: they’re all different. Very different. But they were all mine at one point, and I will love them forever!

Whenever he takes a nap in his crate, Cor curls up with his back or nose against the side I am on. If I’m working at my desk, taking a nap, or going to bed, he is, most of the time, on that side of his kennel. Something that makes me smile.

Yesterday (3/9/20) we went to Home Depot as an outing, and we were both done after ten minutes. Which, I understand for him, but, like, I’ve been out and about longer than that before. And in busier places than Home Depot.  🤷‍♀️

But we met so many nice people and Cor got a lot of pets and sniffs and we both had a win. Why?

💜 Because we were not born to fail, and neither are you! 💜

Lauryn