Dog ponderings

Ok, so I promised you my ponderings on the dog. In the case that we do find his person, I can only hope that his person is a good person who treats him well. If we don't and we get to keep him, I still wonder about his person. We have theorized that he belonged to a transient based on where we found him and everything. If that is the case I hope his previous person is ok. I know that a lot of transients have dogs for many reasons. One of those reasons is for warmth. Another reason is for companionship. Although a lot of transients or homeless people create little communities with each other, they are communities of people. People are so much different than dogs. Whereas a person will do things like cheat, steal, or disown another because of various reasons of their own... A dog is loyal and gives love unconditionally... Truly unconditionally! When a dog runs away, it is not a personal thing. Personal feelings and responses is a person thing.

This kind of got me thinking that maybe dogs are the true Bodhisattva's of the world. A Bodhisattva, as how it was explained to me, is a soul who reaches enlightenment and returns to Earth to help all mankind. In a book I am reading there is a paragraph that goes

"The bodhisattva is encouraged to act in accord with the customs of the place and not do things considered inappropriate. In other words, a bodhisattva blends in and works within the cultural norm, rather than standing out like a sore thumb. In the best sense, a bodhisattva becomes invisible. Nobody knows you're a bodhisattva; you're just doing your best to wake up and benefit others."(No time to lose by Pema Chodron, pg 148)

Is it just me, or does this sound like something that we find dogs doing all the time? We have service dogs, therapy dogs, rescue dogs, and dogs that have been rescued that make huge differences in people's lives. In the case of service dogs, there are several specialties. There are dogs that sense seizures, cancer, anxiety.. There are the seeing eye dogs, and dogs that are trained to help paralyzed people... I even heard one time, that they were training Mexican Hairless dogs to act as a heating pad (of sorts) for those with Fibromyalgia ... Even dogs that are untrained, or those that aren't treated well are there for their humans when they need love or comfort, despite their own mis-treatment. Dogs have the ability to reach people that no other person can reach and help those that no other person can help. They are far more intuitive than the majority of mankind... So perhaps they are souls that have reached enlightenment and returned in the form of a K9 friend, to help all mankind!?!

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