I don't think anyone adopts or rescues a dog thinking that the dog is going to rescue them.
We focus our attention on envisioning our growing puppy joining us on hikes, resting its head on our lap and growing old by the fire. Or we vow to give the best new life to an adult dog that has come from a questionable past.
We tell ourselves that we chose the dog we did for a reason. There was something in its eyes, the wag of its tail, the crooked ear. Something about that dog touched our hearts and we tell ourselves that we rescued it to give it a better life.
The thought that this dog could have possibly chosen us for a purpose other than being a companion never crosses our mind - until the day it does. That's the day you realize your dog has saved your life.
There are the stories of dog heroes who save their owners from death. Like the dog that drags its companion off a railway track, sacrificing its own life in return. There are those dogs that alert their owners in the middle of the night and lead them out of a burning home. And there's the faithful family dog that remains with a lost child, keeping the child warm and protected until help arrives.
We quietly acknowledge the incredible bond between these "superhero" dogs and their people, yet still don't consider our own bond.
The dog sitting at our side, out on walks with us, or riding in the passenger seat beside us may not be the hero of headlines, but it is a hero nonetheless.
Every single day our dogs rescue us from the madness of the world we live in. A world, if we took the news as the gospel truth, that is filled with daily threats of terrorism, betrayal, skyrocketing debts and increasing violence. A world where material objects conjure up feelings of love.
We worship a phone and criticize anyone who chooses to believe in a spiritual entity. From the moment we wake to the moment we fall asleep our minds are bombarded with negative images of how the world is unfolding around us. Even the weather is something we are supposed to be afraid of.
Over time we view the world as a fearful place and everyone in it as a predator. We judge before we meet someone because, according to statistics, we are all eventually going to be a victim of some sort of crime.
Yet in the middle of all this chaos we have our dog - peaceful like the still waters of a lake.
Every day, whether we are conscious of it or not, our dogs save us from a fear that unconditional love, forgiveness and endless devotion are mere figments of our imagination.
Just their sheer presence in our lives - asking for nothing more than the simplest of things: love, trust and empathy - keeps us in touch with our authentic selves. Dogs keep those feelings alive. If it were not for dogs - or any pet we grow emotionally attached to - our lives would indeed be in a sad state.
They wait for us patiently to take them out for a walk. They don't care if you skip your workout or if you didn't finish cleaning the house. If we take our frustrations out on them they forgive us, leaving the past behind with speed and grace that most of us could never fathom.
When we have days where everything seems to go wrong and we feel that no one cares, we look up and see our dogs. Standing in front of us with that eternal look of hope deep in their eyes, we are reminded that something does care, that we are good enough, we are worthy of loyalty, love and trust. And that is when we realize that our dogs have rescued us.
Joan Klucha has been working with dogs for more than 15 years in obedience, tracking and behavioural rehabilitation. Contact her through her website k9kinship.com.
