Post Mothers'Day Wrap

Hello all,

I am back home and the human is back from New Orleans. It seems that the oil spill in Louisiana is wreaking havoc. Did you hear that they use dog hair to assist in the clean-up? I personally never shed, but for my colleagues who leave dog hair everywhere, remember this fact the next time your human rants and raves about dog hair on their clothes!

So, yesterday was Mothers' Day or is it Mother's Day? This is an odd holiday for dogs. Very few of us remember our mothers, which makes sending a card difficult, right? Seriously though, although I don't remember my mother, I do think about her, and wonder what she was like and what kind of life she had, and what she would think about me.

It makes me a little nostalgic but it also makes me realize that biological mothers are not the only mothers we have. Aside from the obvious meaning, mother also means originator, protector, take care of someone tenderly,... When you look at it like that you realize that in the course of our lives we may well have more than one mother.

And that is probably a good thing, because sometimes we need all the mothering we can get. I watched my human yesterday and although she didn't say much about it, I could sense that she was missing her mother too. Her mother lives in a different country and like so many of us who are far from our mothers (in whatever way that might be) Mother's Day reminds us of the hollow place we have in our hearts when our mothers are not with us. My human has several people who help mother her since she is far away from her own mother, but I can tell she has a strong bond with her South African mother.

In some ways (and please don't tell her or I will have to endure being showered with kisses and being spoken to in baby talk) my human is one of the mother figures in my life, as are some of the wonderful people at the rescue organization who helped me at the worst time of my life. Sometimes I think that people who aren't your mother but step up and act as mother when you need it most, need a special holiday all of their own. I wonder what we could call that holiday?

Mothers come in all shapes and sizes, and aren't always what you are expecting, but they always seem to come through for us. So lets celebrate all our protectors, and all those who care for us with tenderness, whether we call them Mother, Mom , or anything else.

To all my mothers - thank you and I love you all
Clifford G.