What Do Your Pets Model For You?

I like this picture of Mallow. So calm. A bit curious although she really does not like to have her picture taken! Usually she will turn away when I get the camera out - or the phone camera.

And yet sometimes when I am a bit fidgety, a bit anxious or worrying too much about something I have NO control over...I watch her. Or, I pet her. Or even lay a hand on her gently. 

She had, we think, a rough beginning. Rescued at about 2 years old from a street in California, she was terrified of many things for a while. People. Sounds. If we were walking in the street, the underside of cars. She is still, as one of my daughter says, an 'urban' dog. She never gets afraid and freezes when we are walking downtown, but get on the Chehalis Western Trail and she will go a bit, stop, not move, I pick her up, we go a bit further and it gets repeated again not far down the trail. 

But overall in the almost 7 years I have had her, she has gotten calmer. She greets clients at the door. She is not afraid to approach new people. She walks confidently downtown...and when she rests, she really rests.

Maybe there is a book out there 'What You Can Learn From Your Pets'...maybe not? But ask yourself: what can you learn from your animals? Or animals who belong to others.