Carley Understands

If you could make your pet understand one thing, what would it be?

If you’ve met Carley, our almost 4-year-old, Labrador retriever, (and many of you have!) you already know that she already understands one thing, many things, quite possibly all things! Don’t get me wrong, she’s not a know-it-all. She’s subtler than that. Understated.

But don’t mistake Carley’s gentle demeanor for a lack of understanding. She was born wise. Hungry and wise. Hungry, inquisitive, and wise. Hungry, inquisitive, adventurous, and wise…

Carley is the third lab that Susan and I have owned together, and the fourth that I have owned. Super smart breed. They come out of the womb understanding more than many of us at midlife. And they’re exceptionally empathic. More than most of us will ever be.

So today’s Bloganuary prompt isn’t really priming the insight pump. Perhaps a better question would be this:

If Carley could make me understand one thing, what would it be?

I suspect that Carley would find it challenging to distill her critical life lessons into one single progenitorial understanding, the mothership of all subsequent understanding.

But it might involve food. For *all* labs, in my experience, eating is a top tier passion and priority. I’m right there with Carley on this one, but she might think it worth her power of persuasion to help me understand that eating should not be relegated to twice a day. Maybe three meals a day, like when she was a puppy? Or once every hour (with intermittent fasting in between, of course) to supercharge the metabolism?

And it might involve less work and more play. As my workday companion much of the time — rarely further than an ear-belly-bum scratch away — Carley is not above an exasperated sigh-into-groan to let me know when I’m becoming too sedentary. Come on, let’s play. We have one and only one opportunity to fully live this day before it’s gone, gone, gone. After all, I play day is never a wasted day!

Yes, it would probably involve both of those, but the pithy, important part would extol companionship. Togetherness, Carley would explain, is even more important than food and play. We’re family, and the more the more adventuring we do *together*, the better. Meals together. Snowy exploration together. Swimming together. Snacks together. Boating together. Snoozing together. Road trips together…