My mother and I had just gotten back from the grocery store on a hot summer day. At the store we picked up a dog bone for Barlow, our 10-year-old black lab. As we walked up the stairs onto the porch we could see him anxiously waiting for us behind the sliding doors. His tail was wagging so hard we thought he would knock something over, but we couldn’t get mad at him for it because it was out of pure happiness to see us. My mom unlocked the door and Barlow nudged his way outside with his big wet nose to greet us. As the sun hit Barlow’s beautiful and heavy black coat, he began to shine like a star.
We gave him a few loving pets and began to unload the groceries inside. That is when Barlow caught the odor of that tasty, mouth-watering, raw hide, marrow-filled bone we bought for him. Barlow sniffed every square inch of the grocery bags but could not seem to find the bone. When he found out I was holding it behind my back he immediately sat his butt down because he knew that always the first task he needs to complete to earn himself a treat. I unwrapped the bone and held it right in front of him. Barlow could NOT take his eyes off of it. His entire focus was on the bone in this moment; however, while caught in a gaze, Barlow was simultaneously lifting up his left paw blindly searching for one of my hands. “Shake” is always the second task. Now that Barlow had completed the two tricks, he deserved it. I set the bone down on the porch because I knew that if I had set it down on the rug inside Barlow would have made a mess that I would have to clean up.
Barlow ran over to the bone and chomped down on it. He used his enormous paws to guard his “precious”, his most prized possession, his bone. While devouring his treat, he wagged his tail which is something Barlow does not normally do while eating, so I knew he was especially happy to have it. I walked inside because I knew Barlow would not like me creepily watching him chew on that bone, which would eventually take him hours to finish. As I walked inside I turned around to close the sliding doors to escape the summer heat, and saw Barlow standing right there. He was wearing his puppy face because he thought I was going to shut the doors on him and leave him alone outside. One other thing, when I looked at Barlow he did not have his bone. He left it on the porch. Barlow would have rather been inside in the presence of my mom and I, than outside chewing on his bone. I let him inside and he began wagging his tail harder than he was when he had the bone.
Find me another dog that will do that. Find me another dog that will carry an egg in his mouth from the chicken coop outside and place it on the doormat uncracked. Find me a dog that will go out and get the paper in the morning because he would rather go outside than have someone from his family do it. Find me a dog like Barlow, who is ten years old, and has tumors covering his body, with not much time to live. The amazing thing about dogs is that they will love their owner no matter how tall, short, overweight, or skinny they are. That is why I will Barlow forever.
