Dogs Never Lie About Love

Dogs Never Lie About Love is a book by Jeffrey Masson – a birthday package from Elyani that I received yesterday. The book was also accompanied with a thick novel of Mario Puzo’s The Godfather’s Revenge by Mark Winegardner (serious stuff, might read it when have spare time) as well as this cool multi-chargers for mobile phones which I didn’t even know existed. The whole thing came in a cute white rattan bag that’s totally perfect for the upcoming summer season.

I am always excited when people gift me with books – especially if it’s about dogs; as it is my first time of being a caretaker of the canine creature, I am ever curious about the way dogs think and behave. Dogs Never Lie About Love talks a lot about the psychological aspects of dogs, but if it sounds boring to you, you’ll be in for a treat.

The following is a quote from its chapter on Why We Cherish Dogs:

“Dogs do not lie to you about how they feel because they cannot lie about feelings. A dog can deceive another dog, but only about facts (pretending, for example, not to see a bone the other dog has temporarily left unattended), not about feelings. Nobody has ever seen a sad dog pretending to be happy, or a happy dog pretending to be sad. When a dog is sad or happy, that feeling occupies its whole being; the dog becomes pure happiness or pure sadness. As Roger Caras wrote in A Dog is Listening; ‘A dog is utterly sincere. It cannot pretend. … People use you and pretend they don’t, while dogs use you in complete honesty because they have no choice, and they have not an ounce of deceit in their soul nor self-consciousness about any of this.”

And I’m convinced that it’s true. Since I adopted Micah over a year ago, I sincerely think that he is incapable of doing anything that resembles the trait of any human wickedness – cheating, lying, grudging and deceit.

Now that he’s grown up, he becomes more and more protective of me. Sometimes he barks in the middle of the night, bolts straight to the door and growls angrily at something that is only visible to him. While I, eyes slitty with sleep, feeling annoyed of having a massive headache due to the ringing from his barking which resonates through the walls and go straight to my ears.

It amuses me how he’s always keen to be the one who gets to the door before anyone else, whether we’re going in or out. At first I thought it was because he didn’t want to miss out on anything and that it was just the competitive side of him wanting to be the first in everything. But then I realized it was none other than the fact that he wanted to protect me from anything that might come from behind the door. He seems totally oblivious to the fact that his appearance and the size of him does not suit with the way he barks. People tend to think I own such a huge dog; therefore they are surprised when they found out how tiny Micah really is.

Thing is, Micah is a male dachshund who possesses a longer body than most dogs do, so I’d like to think that the sounds he produce from his throat might have to reverberate a couple of times through his ribs first before it actually comes out of his mouth – that’s why it’s so loud – too loud, even for a small dog like him.

Aside from being protective, Micah is capable of showing how much he wants to be spoilt, and he demands it too. When I’m on my laptop, he often stands and rests his front feet to the side of my chair and looks at me intently. If I ignore him (which is often), he will proceed to push his cold snout to the side of my arm to get my full attention. Not only the coldness from the tip of his wet nose shocks me, but it also distracts me from whatever I’m doing at that time, thus I end up stopping completely, pet him and pick him up so that he can sleep on my lap and finally continue to whatever activity that I do in front of my laptop.

I love hugging him and rest my chin on top of his head; his fur is so soft and he smells lovely – especially after I bathe him. He seems to know how much it displays my affection to him, because whenever I’m holding him and land kisses on his face, he will press his face to my chest, as if he is shy to be loved so much, or perhaps it’s his way of saying “I love you too.” At first I thought this was purely coincidental because I didn’t think a dog could recognize something that only human being can feel, but after many times of doing it, he always does the same thing back to me – his version of “I love you too” to me.

I am the one who should be grateful for this blatant act of love, for Micah loves me unconditionally no matter what. Even if I scold him and tells him off for being bad, he will still come running after me, tail wagging and everything, always so eager to see me and to be near to me as often as possible. Sometimes I feel so honored to have known such a wonderful creature, who loves me just for being me.

Adopting a dog is the only unconditional love money can buy. And sometimes, you’re lucky enough to get it for free.

Thank you Elyani, for the beautiful birthday present. You’re a gem, God bless you so