The state of affairs in the New World Order of pandemic pandemonium has, in no small way, altered the very fabric of human existence. All the nooks and little crannies of day-to-day life bring with them, now, added layers of care and concern and caution that barely ever crossed our minds only a few short months ago.
It seems to me that we have lost our sense of humor and more or less abandoned perhaps the best thing about being human beings: spontaneity. Does anyone even remember what it feels like anymore to set out with one thing planned in your mind and randomly, without warning or forethought, stepped off the crazy merry-go-round of life, kicked off your shoes, and run barefoot through the grass on a warm sunny summer day?
I certainly don’t!
Nowadays, you have to worry about whether you have your mask on or whether you’re keeping 6 ft away from strangers or whether they have their own masks on. But this is no way to live a happy life and, as far as Daisy and I are concerned, we simply refuse to relinquish our right to be happy.
And so it was the other day, as Daisy and I embarked on our near-daily walk to the park, that a simply grand and glorious accident occurred while we were playing catch or, more accurately, keep away. And, in order to better set this up, consider the brief video below which shows how Daisy gets a leisurely drink out of the hose; I offer her a gentle flow of water and she makes a game out of it trying to entice me to spray her once in a while because, being a water dog, she can never get enough of the stuff.
Daisy is just a little over six years old now, and I have taught her over the years to understand the words “get a drink” and to associate them with this water frivolity. It is a lot of fun for both of us, and neither one of us comes back into the house dry.
On this particular afternoon, doing what we always do there, the sprinkler system turned on catching both of us by surprise. I mean, I knew there was a sprinkler system in the park, but we had never actually been there when it turned on. Needless to say, Daisy was beside herself – she couldn’t get to the sprinkler fast enough.
Before I had even had the chance to think it through, she put her nose right down on the outlet at ground level and practically blew her face off. I honestly don’t remember the last time I laughed that hard.
Instinctively, she backed away and tried to sort through what had just happened. Her natural desire for water eventually won out over the internal arguing that surely must have been taking place, inside her canine brain, between the fear of pain and the need to “get a drink”.
I am well aware that everyone who has a dog and loves them like I loved mine, confidently declares that theirs is the best dog ever. Maybe so, but in my life, it is I who is fortunate enough to be living with the ‘legit’ best dog ever. And I can prove this because, within minutes, Daisy had figured out how to proceed with getting a drink despite the risks.
It was at this point that I joined her in the sprinklers, without even bothering to take my shoes and socks off, and proceeded to get soaking wet. You would think that, at my age, acting like a kid would be something long absent from the rearview mirror of my life. I’m here to tell you this is just not the case; The older I get the more like a kid I become. Certainly, so long as I have Daisy in my life, I expect to keep getting younger and more like a kid every day.
And why the hell not?!
