Connecting to the Animals

My cocker spaniel Jackson and I went through our usual routine this morning.

He becomes increasingly alarmed as I get ready to go to work. He knows when I get closer and closer to being ready to leave. He gets agitated when I eat breakfast, worried as I shave, scared when I get dressed, panicked when I gather up my wallet, phone and keys.

All during this process, he engages in more and more desperate attempts to play with me, the more to stall me, to keep me with him.

See, he knows me like the back of his paw. He loves being around people, and me getting ready to leave makes Jackson think he will be abandoned. He'll howl piteously if I go outside for a minute to retrieve something from the truck and leave him in the house for a moment. He feels abandoned, sad.

Then, when I open the door to leave, I turn to him and say, "Wanna go for a ride?" His reaction is as grateful as if I'd saved him from certain death. "Wanna go for a ride," means he gets to do just that, which is one of his favorite activities. Plus, he knows that if I'm giving him a ride as I go to work in the morning, that means I'm taking him to doggie daycare, where he gets to play with his posse for the day.

I go through this whole story because I love how animals and humans find ways to form connections.   Two videos I found on the Daily What made me smile. I'll show them to you. First up: A chimpanzee makes a new friend in Wichita, Kansas/

Then, after that, a duckling  behaves just like my Jackson in the morning. (love the pose in the duck vid before you start it.

Animals almost always make us smile, no?