The commitment of Cooper
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| Cooper and Chica patiently waiting for their walk~ |
Cooper is one of the many commitments in my life. A priority really. Daily regardless of the weather I walk him every morning generally fairly early on depending on the time of year.
Most mornings he stands along my bedside silently wagging his tail patiently waiting for me to open my eyes and greet the day between 5 - 5:30 a.m. He’s ready for his morning pee, which means I open my eyes give thanks for the day after I’ve completed my meditation and quietly walk him to the back door, ask him to go pee and stay in the yard and come right back.
He does exactly that and then patiently waits as I get up, showered and dressed the for the day in preparation for daily walk.
Each morning begins with an hour long walk for both him and Chica as I listen and am inspired by Tony Robbins Get the Edge audio program I’ve got loaded up on my phone.
As in Tony’s words rain, snow, sun it doesn’t matter what the weather I am up daily walking both of the pups as part of my morning routine. In the summer when the weathers nice we walk again in the afternoon for another hour and even through the winter months quite often we get out for at least one other walk which may be just up to half an hour or forty minutes depending on the day.
Coopers commitment to me is his unconditional love which he expresses to me in a variety of ways. Some of them annoying and others not so much. The others are typically far more endearing. Each and every day he’s excited, anxious and happy to see me. He wags his tail, he climbs on my lap, he pushes up against me, he climbs up on to the bed with me and lands on top of me. He cuddles up and curls up alongside of me, all 80 lbs of him. Any chance he gets he makes sure he’s the closest to me so that I can pay him the most amount of attention.
The rule in the household is to always say ” Cooper we love you the most!” ( And of course we all love both the pups equally as much)
Cooper is very expressive and very needy. Each time I either reach for my jacket or my socks which is his indicator we’re getting close to walk time he starts to pace around me. He begins to get vocal and he follows me as if he were my shadow.
Chica will patiently sit quietly in front of me knowing full well we’ll be heading off soon. Cooper circles around me, circles around Chica, paces, drops open his mouth, looks up at me with those beautiful golden eyes that almost pierce through me and begins to pant in anticipation of our departure.
Some times I’m quite effective at getting him to lay down calmly and wait. Other times I’ have to show him the ‘lemon’. The little plastic lemon filled with lemon juice that I bought at the dollar store to remind him that if he continues to be rude that he’ll get a sour squirt in the side of his mouth to encourage him to stop his disrespectful behavior.
I’ve only actually squirted a touch of lemon juice in the side of his mouth less than a handful of times. Just showing him the lemon is enough to make him pay attention and heed my request.
It’s a bit of a routine, a practice or ritual I suppose that we go through each and everyday as part our of morning paces. My commitment to Cooper is the full responsibility that I take very seriously with the decision to become a time pet owner.
Regardless of my schedule, my other duties, responsibilities, commitments or deadlines for my day, my commitment is to walk both Cooper and Chica first thing in the morning before I get on with anything else.
The commitment to Cooper and Chica really becomes a commitment to myself as well.
Each and every morning I spend time outside in the fresh air, appreciating the day, giving gratitude, moving my body, exercising, and maintaining a discipline of self care that inspires and supports the rest of my day.
It’s really the foundation of what occurs through the rest of my day. It doesn’t matter what is planned for the day, if I feel perhaps like sleeping in a little later than usual, the first commitment of the day is to make sure that Cooper’s needs are met and from there I create my life deliberately and intentionally to include what’s important to me and what’s necessary to him so that we both can fully live and experience great joy and happiness in our life.
The lessons continue…….
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