Down, Dog!

Everything I need to know about Yoga I learned from my dog....

We have a yellow lab named Lola. She is only about 16 months old and she is the second dog in this family. She's named after the Jimmy Buffett song "Frank and Lola" (see Parrothead Yoga http://shootingstaryoga.blogspot.com/2010/06/parrothead-yoga.html)

Our first dog was a beautiful, rare Viszla mix, named Tucker. We rescued him through an arduous adoption process that included my husband getting up at 2am on adoption morning in order to get a spot in line that would guarantee this family a puppy. I got up at 1:30am that morning, packed him a cooler full of breakfast and coffee and told him not to come home until he got a dog. We looked at each other, shook our heads and laughed; another escapade in the story of our family. We lost Tucker, tragically, less than a year later when he was only 13 months old. He ran out into the street in front of our house and was killed instantly when he was hit by a car. It was the most painful event this little family has ever experienced. Even now, over a year later, we still grieve his loss.

Baby Tucker

I know that everything happens for a reason and it makes me feel better to think that his death brought Lola to our lives. About 10 days after we lost Tucker, I had arranged another dog adoption. This time the rescue group seemed less than legitimate, but they had promised me a yellow, female puppy. Now we found ourselves meeting a stranger and her dirty box van in the parking lot of a shady motel in the dark of night. When she opened the back door, at the top of a pile of filthy crates full of animals she had driven all the way from Georgia to Connecticut, was a silly looking yellow critter who appeared to be laughing at us.

Elijah and Lola on the night we brought her home.

The first thing we noticed, besides how filthy she was, was that she had "sad eyes" but seemed to be always smiling at us. It's this combination of sadness and silliness that endeared her to us so much, so quickly.

She turned out to be a really good dog. She's smart, she listens, and she is a comedian. When she was a puppy I wanted to train her to ride in the car as much as possible. That came to a screeching halt after she decided the only place for her to ride was on my lap with her paws on the steering wheel. She helped ease the pain of losing Tucker. She let's the kids climb all over her and love her. She has never once nipped at them no matter what they do to her. Sometimes she will walk up to me with a spy gadget attached to her collar if the kids need another participant in a secret agent game. She still smiles. She'll sleep with anyone of us if we are sad and need a warm body to cuddle up next to and she'll smile at you after the nap.

Nap Time

She never judges me when the house is a mess. She helps with the laundry by laying on it. She only eats when she's hungry. She will nag you to death until you stop doing housework so that you can play with her and then she will only play until she gets bored. She is over 50lbs now but still thinks she is a lap dog. We take a lot of pictures and videos of her because we didn't do that with Tucker. And she is always happy.

She rescued us far more than we could have ever rescued her.