The Most Unconditional Love Comes From Our Pets

Pets are truly the best. Whether you own a dog, cat, bird, snake, or a variety of other types of pets, they bring so much to our lives. Pets are all about unconditional love if you treat them right and love them back.

When I hear people say, “Oh it’s just a dog…” I get fairly irritated with that. I want to answer back, “Yeah, and you’re just annoying.” or “Yep, but this dog outranks you.” If it comes down to you or my dog being annoyed enough to conflict, then you’re going home.

Libby comes first in our household. I know the kids might feel a little miffed by this, but tough shit. She’s pretty much defenseless, while they can hold their own when we’re breakin’ balls and teasing each other.

Libby has never been moody at me unless I’ve tried to take her bone or toy. That lands on me, for with her. I try not to purposely irritate her too often. Mai sometimes riles her up and it’s funny to see their thing back and forth.

When I come home, guess who’s always happy to see me? My Bride? True enough. The kids? Generally so, unless they’re distracted or in the middle of something important. But who comes running as soon as she hears the front door opening, EVERY time? Libby. Mooch is always glad to see me.

Her little tail wags a mile a minute. She jumps up to greet me, even though she’s 10 1/2 years old now. She follows me around while I put groceries away, or set my laptop back up after returning from the office where I’ve been writing. She can’t wait to curl up next to me and just enjoy my presence.

Sometimes, she’s ready for a walk. I can always tell because she’ll come up and stare at me. I’ll offer her water and if she passes, it means she needs to LOSE her water, not drink more. We go out for walks often.

I’ve gotten far more patient with her on our walks over the past little bit. I’ve realized that living in a townhouse complex, she isn’t free to go outside as often as she might like. She relies on me to take her when she needs to go, and I do my best not to rush her.

Though I’m often thinking about my writing during the time we spend outside together, I try not to rush to get back to it. The laptop will still be open when I return. And Mooch will settle right back down next to me, once our outdoor adventures are over.

Sometimes I’ll just let her lead the way. We tend to have our usual same path around the large complex, but once in a while, she wants to take her time and explore. I’m glad to let her trot around, sniffing the flowers, the bushes, or especially that fire hydrant on the south end of the property.

She’s taught me a lot about patience and unconditional love. Of course, Libby is a world-class beggar. There’s a reason my buddy Russo nicknamed her “The Mooch”. Mooch is good at what she does. She has very expressive eyes and a steely reserve to stare you down until you bend to her will and give her a morsel of your food.

I don’t consider her love to be conditional, even if she’s a Mooch and needs to go outside more than what’s convenient for me, personally. If I didn’t feed her a tiny bit of people food, or didn’t take her outside as often as I do, she’d still love me.

Pets have a way of loving us just as we are. We can be having a bad day and feeling moody, yet they still want to be near us. I realize that not everyone is obsessive about their pets, but I am. I talk to her all day long, as if she’s a person who could understand what I’m saying. She knows more than most people think.

Being a writer, I work from home a lot. We’re together all day long, most days. When I do have to leave to run to the grocery store, give our kids a ride somewhere, or have to do a little side hustle work, I hate leaving her. Though she likely just naps for most of the time she’s home alone, it still makes me a little sad leaving her.

I tell her, “Ok Libs. Daddy has to go do a job for about 3 hours, but I’ll be back. You take a nap. Want the window blinds open, for some sun? Cool. Ok, you be a good girl, Daddy loves you.”

*Kisses for the baby, probably more than she’d actually like. Damn, did I forget something upstairs? Runs back up, more kisses for Mooch.

Just the sheer number of nicknames I have for her tells me that I have a somewhat unhealthy attachment to her. Libby, Mooch, Libberoni, Ho Chi Mooch, Mooch Chi Minh, Lil’ baby, McButt, Choo-Choo, Baby-Bear, Choo-Choo-Bear, Libby-Bear, Pooh-Bear, what’s with all the “bear” nicknames, anyway?

As obsessive as Mai and I are with Libby, I know that a truly sad day is going to come in the future. I hope it’s a long time from now. I see signs of her slowing down a bit, though she’s still quite active for a 10 1/2-year-old dog. She’s a Pomeranian/Chihuahua mix, and both breeds tend to have longer lifespans. Still, that will be a supremely difficult day when she goes.

We both agree that we’ve never loved a pet more than Libby. Even though she’s only been with us for half of her life (she was our daughter’s dog over at her dad’s house for five years), it feels as though we’ve fit so many memories into the past 5 1/2 years with her.

I always hope that she gets as much from us as we do from her. I suspect that she does. She’ll bark at anyone who goes near Mai when the two of them are cuddled up, me included. The kids get a little irritated about this and tell us that she’s spoiled. I agree that she is, but isn’t that the point?

Because pets bring so much into our lives without asking for hardly anything, I feel obligated to give her the best life and as much love as possible. A few tiny bites of people food, why not? She loves my cooking, I get it. Frequent, longer walks? My pleasure.

Libby will continue to have the life she’s grown accustomed to. We’ll take good care of her as we’ve always done until the day she crosses the Rainbow Bridge. Again, hopefully not for many years from now.

As difficult as that moment will be someday, I know that we’ll both be there with her so she isn’t fearful. She’ll be held in our arms while she falls asleep and we’ll be the ones left behind, feeling worse than we’ve ever felt in our lives.

This is the trade-off about pets and their unconditional love: We receive one of the greatest gifts we are able to have in life. Someone who loves us for no reason other than that we love them back. But only for a short period of our own lives.

I love you, Libby Mooch. Daddy is gonna wrap this blog up so he can come home and cuddle you. You save a spot for me on the bed, I’ll bring the treats. &:^)