Whenever we are graced with a visitor at our house, molly and i grab the nearest chew toy and rush to the door for a two-dog tail-wagging welcome. Â Our behavior is quite endearing and intended to make our guests feel immediately at home. We don’t have much of material value to offer, but we do know how happy humans are to be given a semi-dry-drool-soaked unidentifiable ragdoll of an indiscriminate age, so we pull out all the stops and really put on the dog to let them know they matter. Our company immediately break into smiles, brace for giant puppy love, and shower us with thank you hugs, so i have to assume our offerings are out of this world. You have to give love to get love.
Sometimes our guest is a guy in a big brown truck who brings big heavy boxes and leaves them by the garage. He pulls halfway up the driveway at almost exactly the same time each day he comes, but he never stays too long or goes inside to chat and play…it’s like he is just there to see what he can do for us. To tell the dog’s honest truth, we do get especially excited when the guy in brown arrives because those boxes are almost always filled with food and snacks for Molly and me…at least every three to four weeks with autoship they are. We usually try to provide him with an extra wag since he doesn’t appear to want more, and we graciously take what he gives.
Life is all about give and take.
Mom and dad give us treats…we take them.  Molly puts her treat down…i take it. I put my treat down…Molly takes it.  It’s cyclical. We even work together to create fun competitions…when Sheeva gets up from the best sleeping spot…we race to see who can take that first. Â
When you’re a country dog, which i am, there is not much time to sit idly by and watch the days float past.  Every day is a day to prepare for whatever season is around the corner. There is canning to do all summer and firewood to prepare in the early fall.  My city dog friends may think country dogs just lift their leg to a tree and it immediately splits itself to 18-inch aged logs stacked and ready to burn, but i am here to tell you that is not the case. The firewood process starts on the hottest day in August and runs until we are satisfied we can have a crackling fire whenever our little hearts desire. Admittedly, i do not enjoy the hot, dry feel of the wood-burning stove, but my people, Molly and Sheeva have an affinity for cozying up on the sofa on a cold, snowy day, so i gladly do my part to keep them comfy.
And my part is huge.
This summer mom and dad rented a splitter for our first round of firewood.  Typically, i don’t like loud noises, but on this occasion, i made an exception because despite its roar, the splitter gave me an endless supply of split firewood wood to pick up and carry away.  Yep, carry away. The crazy humans lift and split and toss wood into a pile, and i take the prime pieces to place at random around the yard.
Like i said, helpful. I have a plan.
For some reason, they decided to split the next round by hand…which looked like a lot more work…but which gave me a lot more fun. With giant puppy-like stealth, i could take flying pieces right out of the air. Human hand splitting is slower than human machine use, so i was able to give so much more help by quickly taking so many more morsels of what they produced to turn into my virtual Easter egg hunt.
As if the splitting and chopping isn’t enough, the final arduous step is lugging and stacking their accumulated achievements on the front porch of the house for easy access on chilly nights.
You guessed it, i am able to lend a paw or two here as well. Â While dad loads the wood into the wheelbarrow, i dog ear my favorites. Â Moments later he dumps the load for mom to stack, and i snag the best ones to move far far away so i can bring them back on another colder day.
Why do i work like a dog during firewood season when i don’t even enjoy the heat of the fire?  Why do i make myself dog tired when i won’t welcome the warmth later on? Why do i run until my dogs are screaming when i could just let this sleeping dog lie?? Well, i don’t have much of material value to offer, but my humans and siblings have an affinity for cozying up on the sofa on a cold, snowy day, so i have to do my part to keep them comfy.
Life is all about give and take.
Visitors, guys in brown trucks, firewood…the gifts in our lives are everywhere when we choose to see them. Now that the holiday season is upon us, i can’t help but think about the giving and taking that will go on all around the world for those who are lucky. It is surely a festive time, but also easy to hide away the logs we gather and lose sight of what matters most.  It’s not the boxes, it’s not the treats, it isn’t even the firewood.
It is what we can give of ourselves in order to do for others.
Go into this season with the same intentions as me…give the biggest tail wag you have to offer, take what others give you…and stash away a semi-dry-drool-soaked unidentifiable ragdoll of an indiscriminate age for someone who may enjoy it another day.
i’m a dog, i love life, and i have flaws. i’m perfect. imperfect. Just. Like. You.