As I sit down to write this week’s column, there’s a 2-year-old golden retriever sitting across from me with his head resting on the edge of my work desk.
The blue platypus stuffed animal that he has in his mouth is covering the notepad I always have on my desk — the one I use to write down ideas for columns as they come to me throughout the week.
He would much rather be in the backyard right now playing catch in the snow with that loud squeaky toy. He has mastered the art of catching the toy but not returning it and releasing it, but I digress.
My wife and I were one of the 23 million American households that brought home a puppy at the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in the spring of 2020. We had been talking about getting a dog even before we were married, and COVID was the catalyst that sped up our decision.
More than two years have passed since we brought Santiago home, and we cannot imagine life without him. In fact, our only regret is that we didn’t bring home two golden retriever pups from the same litter.
I’ve heard often that dogs have a sixth sense. I’m thinking that’s true today, as the idea I jotted down several days ago on my notepad that at this moment has a dog’s head resting on top of it was to write about Santiago.
A news article popped up on one of my social media feeds last week about how dogs can make you healthier and happier and also keep you safe. The findings certainly seem to be in line with what my wife and I have experienced since we brought Santiago home, and they also made us chuckle.
We are healthier these days because of having Santiago.
Prior to having a dog, you never would have found me walking around the neighborhood for 20 to 30 minutes at 5 a.m. seven days a week, especially in the middle of an Indiana winter.
Our dog can’t keep his eyes open much past 8 o’clock every night, which means he’s up long before the sun rises every day and anxious to hit the pavement with a 1-mile walk regardless of the weather outside. We repeat the same process every afternoon as we log another mile.
Thanks to Santiago, I have probably walked some 1,500 miles that I would not have walked had we not brought him home — the same distance between Bluffton and Key West, Fla.
Dogs also make you happier while keeping you safe.
Our Santiago is a big dog — much bigger than we thought the 8-pound puppy we brought home would turn in to. He weighs about 115 pounds, he’s tall and he’s long, yet he’s more like Winnie the Pooh or the lion from the “Wizard of Oz” despite how scary his bark sounds when someone rings the doorbell — or when he hears a doorbell ring on TV.
Several of the kids around our neighborhood built snowmen on Saturday that were still standing early Sunday morning as we walked. You would have thought those melting snowmen were Godzilla-type monsters, as our big Golden Retriever was some 50 feet away from them but still scared to walk past the Frosty lookalikes.
Another neighbor had an inflatable pumpkin in his yard a couple of weeks ago to celebrate Halloween. Santiago wouldn’t go near his house until the pumpkin was gone.
I’m not so sure about how safe Santiago keeps us, but he certainly makes us smile every day.
It only seems logical that if one dog can make you healthier, happier and keep you “safe” that two dogs could lead to twice as many benefits.
Seems like something worth investigating in 2023.
jdpeeper2@hotmail.com
