Just having a dog can be wonderfully therapeutic. Having another life to take care of can help make you more responsible for your own. Animals can also be a tremendous comfort. A few years ago I had a temporary routine of getting up for a few minutes then going back to bed. I’d let one of our dogs who didn’t normally sleep in the bed join me.
He quickly got used to it. He’d run down the hall ahead of me and would stand in the middle of the bed, so excited that it was nap time! Then as soon as I lay down he’d curl up, all sixty pounds of him leaning into me. If I moved even a little bit he’d let out a long disgruntled moan as if to say “Be still! I’m sleepin’ here!” That always made me laugh before I went back to sleep.
