I always had the misguided notion that nature took care of itself. That animals had a survival instinct. They are born knowing how to communicate, how to walk, and swim. In short, animals know how to stay alive.
However, I've come to realize in the last week alone, that puppies were last in line when that big light in the sky was handing out the survival instinct. Maybe they were too busy running around, or yapping too loudly, but puppies don't realize how lucky they are every day, breathing, running, living.
Case in point:
Monday: Puppy ate rocks, sticks, and tufts of grass.... he's lucky to be alive.
Tuesday: Puppy discovered the garbage bin in the laundry room. He ate lint, Kleenex, paper hand towels, and gum wrappers... he's lucky to be alive.
Wednesday: Puppy gets a fresh bowl of water five times a day. However, he's discovered puddles of water left by rain, car washes, sprinklers... loves to lap it all up (soap and all!!)... he's lucky to be alive.
Thursday: Puppy discovers a water bottle while I'm running him in a schoolyard. Only, it's not an entire bottle... just a broken shell of itself... he's lucky to be alive.
Friday: Puppy runs over to the only piece of trash in the whole yard. A Styrofoam cup must have blown over. Puppy loves the millions of pieces it becomes in his mouth... he's lucky to be alive.
Saturday: Puppy is playing with his bone. He loves his bone. He's going at it with an enthusiasm I haven't seen since he was 8 weeks old. He's at the bottom of the stairs. I'm at the top. I praise him for being such a good puppy. I tell him he's a good boy. I come down the stairs to watch an episode of Entourage I had DVR'd. I'm looking for the remote... but all I find is the puppy's bone. Yep, you guessed it, I praised him for 10 minutes for chewing on the remote. When hubby came home, hubby reminded me that puppy was lucky to still be alive.
Sunday: I'm sitting in the home office writing this blog. I hear a noise behind me. I turn around. There's puppy, chewing on my Anne Klein red wedge (left foot)... oh yeah, puppy is sooo lucky to be alive!!!!