thelesbianlifestyle.com

Lectori Salutem! or L.S. (Greetings to the Reader!)

Sometimes it’s joked about in the Lesbian community that all we need is our dogs or cats, and a woman just becomes the icing on the cake. Well certainly compared to the heterosexual community, the GLBT community takes pet ownership to a whole new level. This should come as no surprise to anyone. I was really just trying to find some statistics to back up the story I wanted to tell.

83% of lesbians have a pet!!!!! What a shocker!!! And drum roll please…. 60% of lesbians have dogs! To round out the statistics, 61% of gay men have pets and 38% of gay men have dogs. As for cats, there is some overlap with lesbians which of course is too be expected as I know you all know friends who have dogs and a cat or two. So, 28% of gay men have cats and 51% of lesbians of cats. That means only 13% of gay women, according to this study at least, do not own dogs!

OK, OK, now that I have established what I already knew, on to the subject at hand, the immense bond we form with our pets. This bond is universal and open to anyone who gives their dog love and devotion but I am going to focus on the unique bond of a lesbian and her dog, at least from the lesbian’s perspective.

I have countless friends that go to the ends of the earth to spend time with their dog after a bad break up where the dog is collateral damage. The love of a dog is something inexplicable. I still can recall the pain of losing my first dog, Otto, named for the Sarge’s dog in the Beetle Bailey comic strip. That dog raised me from three until I was twenty years old. He took all the tail pulling of a baby girl and the spankings of a girl forcing him to play baby and he did it all so willingly. He was a miracle dog.

He survived a pix ax to the stomach. My dad was trying to kill a rattlesnake in our back yard in La Jolla and Otto ran after the snake because he thought it was going to strike my dad just as the ax came down. He survived a poising in our watermelon patch, same house. My mom put out pesticide to kill the ladybugs that were eating our watermelon leaves and Otto ate and it was off to emergency again. He had many other close calls and ER trips but once I was raised the poor dog hated children and would growl if they came near him. I guess he felt he had done his job with my brother and I but never again!!!!

As an adult I remember it never occurred to me I could have my own dog for a long, long time. I lived in apartments and moved a lot and it just never seemed possible. Then eleven years ago I saw a man with a miniature dachshund and it all clicked. I am stable living wise. I am not moving anymore. He’s the perfect size. I got one within the week. Now, all these years later I have three. One was a foster, 14, one is a champion and a crazy bastard, 3, and then the original who just turned 11.

I am a lesbian dog owner and all that it entails. They have gotten me through more drama, rough patches, depressions, grounded me during the elations, been a source to pick up chicks when need be, (hell, I’m not too proud to admit it), but most of all they are my constant, my truth, waiting, happily always waiting for me to come home and talk, yell, scream, comfort, anything I want or need and they are there.

It is not that these dogs are human as it is one of my pet peeves when someone starts to anthropomorphize a dog. A dog has plenty of great qualities in his own right but he is not a human being! Dogs lick their balls, eat shit and enjoy it, and love with the strength no human could muster even after you’ve yelled at them at the top of your lungs for peeing on the carpet or accidentally breaking a valuable piece of Venetian glass. No human I know or have ever seen reacts like that so just let the animal live its dog life.

Having said that, they are an animal with keen senses and emotional centers and definitely feel when I am sad or sick, happy or mad. Not in ways a human would know and not always quickly but when I come home from the hospital, there is a quiet, they hold it as long as they can so I only have to take them out once or twice a day instead of four times. If I am crying they snuggle in as close to me as they can and the youngest who hasn’t yet learned the etiquette I have taught my older two is wagging his tail with his whole body wriggling in my face, licking my tears so eager to make it all better that he does by making me laugh.

With all these wonderful qualities we share with our animals, we love them as if they were part of us until they are part of us, forgetting we will always outlive them. Then those days come and our worlds crumble from sorrow as we have lost a piece of our soul.

A friend of mine had to let her dog go on Friday and that is what sparked this blog in the first place. Once I started the trip, however, it took me to unopened pockets in my own history that needed some airing out. The past sometimes needs a good dusting off when the memories are lovely to look at and your sense of smell still keen.

I lost a dog way before his time due to my own negligence and his death is still a fresh wound so I’ll share it to help the healing process. I was gone all day shopping and did not put all my medication bottles completely out of his reach. He hadn’t shown an interest in them before, nor did any of the dogs but this day he did and his ate an entire bottle of prescription pain pills. By the time we got back from shopping he was still alive but barely. I called the vet and he said because of his body temperature it was too late to do anything. Just hold him. So I did and he died two and a half hours later.

I am sure everyone who has lost a loving pet knows that feeling of loss. Let’s all just think about St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals, for my friend tonight and if your Christian please read the Prayer to The Animals that is in the Quote For The Day.

Much Love.

Inspired By Sappho’s Muse

MUSIC OF THE DAY
Since this is a blog of contemplation on woman’s best friend and the bond that dogs hold in our lives, I am going to pick A Bridge Over Troubled Water as sung by the amazing Charlotte Church. This is one of the most beautiful recordings of this song I have ever heard. The second is a symbol of the friendship we develop with our trusted pets. It’s James Taylor’s You’ve Got A Friend. It is especially poignant in the line “you just call out my name and you know wherever I am, I’ll come running”, because isn’t that exactly what our dogs do? The music can only be heard at the original website.

A Bridge Over Troubled Water  Charlotte Church
You’ve Got A Friend                  James Taylor

QUOTE OF THE DAY
Blessed are you, Lord God, maker of all living creatures. You called forth fish in the sea, birds in the air and animals on the land. You inspired St. Francis to call all of them his brothers and sisters. We ask you to bless this pet. By the power of your love, enable it to live according to your plan. May we always praise you for all your beauty in creation. Blessed are you, Lord our God, in all your creatures! Amen
St. Frances of Assisi