Time …. It takes time for things to truly develop.
Axel has been with me for a year and a half, and only in the last month have I notice that our bond has shifted into one of ease, flow and a new level of communication. Sometimes I even know what he is thinking. I can sometimes hear his thoughts, expressed in a desire.
We walk and I am at ease. He trusts me.
When we get home from work, and it is a nice day, I know that he is at peace and happy to be lying out on the lawn watching the world. Sometimes he barks at people who walk buy, especially dogs, but that is just who he is, and if it is too much I call him inside and he comes (after several calls!) He is happy to be at home, chilling out. And I am happy to be sitting on the patio with a hot or a cold drink, relaxing with him, content after a good day at work.
He has my heart, this little boy, this little companion of mine. But what uplifts me so much is the bond that is between us, and it is a bond that took a year and a half to get to.
I feel like I have matured and grown up as regards to being a doggy parent. I used to panic if we were out for a walk and I saw another dog. Now I just pick Axel up and carry him past the dog and people. Sometimes I say ‘Sorry, he might be a bit rude’ and sometimes he growls at the other dog, but most times now he is silent. I don’t haul him in on the lead when I see another dog, I just stop and walk myself along the lead to him as fast as I can and then swoop him up and carry him. I keep an eye out for other dogs and people at all times, especially scooters, skateboards, he hates them and they scare me too, the way they come racing up from nowhere and suddenly they and the noise is right there. Seems to me very few skateboarders, scooter riders, or cyclists have any consideration for the people or animals they race up behind and pass.
His complete trust in me is amazing. And I cherish the opportunity to share my life with him. I continue to learn, and must often remind myself to observe him, so that I can learn more and improve my understanding all the time. This morning he started sniffing the air, on our walk, and getting a bit stimulated and I knew he could smell the dog that lived at the house we were passing. Very rarely is the dog ever outside when we walk past at that time of day, but today he was, so they barked and growled at each other—fair call, Axel does it too—so we quickly moved on. But I had observed that he knew the dog was there. Paying attention to Axel, and also my surroundings needs to be second nature all the time. Unfortunately sometimes I have too many thoughts and running round in my head about my own life, and work—but I am learning to stop and just be with Axel when we get home from work and on our days off, and also when we go for our walks.
He is a being, a spark of Divine Consciousness, and we are equals. I sometimes find that on days off, when I can slow down, I can sense all around me as a consciousness, and I appreciate that so much.
The relationship between Axel and I … one where we cannot talk in the same language, but must learn to understand each other, to read each other, to pay attention to each other, to learn the cues. It is gift. It is honest, real, true. I cannot lie to him and he cannot lie to me. There is only truth between us, and love, and trust and respect. Trust is earned … and it took a long time before his trust was true and complete … and that is understandable when, at the age of 2 years 4 months, he was sold by his human family. Do they know that every time we bike past a couple pushing a pram with a baby that he looks to see if it is them? And so, yes I bought him. I needed a companion and he needed a new home, and I could not walk away once I had met him, seen his face, and immediately fallen in love with him. A year and a half later he knows, without doubt, that I am his family, that we are a partnership. He moved into my home, where my daughter and her dog lived, and then a kitten … so he has a bigger family and a doggie big sister, and a kitten little brother. He is at peace here.
In the early months I felt so out of my depth with Axel. But now … we understand each other, and the bond between us is beautiful. The trust between us is not something I take for granted, it is something I am in deep appreciation of.
