“Hear me. There’s not enough love in the world. Turn to the penguin next to you, put your flippers up, fluff him up a little bit and give him a great big hug.”
~ Lovelace. Happy Feet.
My co-worker, Natalie (I want to add that she’s the most real, sometimes faulty vulnerable person in the world. Like myself.), posted on Facebook a few days ago about happy feet. The quote she posted had nothing to do with the movie, but that’s where my mind went. I think it was honestly about yoga or something, and don’t get me wrong, I LOVE yoga, but the happy feet that came to my mind were my little pitter patters that I hear at 5 am, way too early, not wanting to roll out of bed, but knowing that I have to.
Or that I want to.
BTW, the Happy Feet movie is about penguins and their little dancing feet. (P.S., I’m explaining what the movie is about because if ya’ll don’t have a kid under ten, you probably don’t know, and that’s totally fine. I’ll send you a copy. Kind of kidding… I can’t afford that… but it’s really good. I would, however, send you a $1.75 Redbox credit to rent it. And that price is Blu-Ray.)
So, the reason I was inspired by her post is because of a lot of things.
I’m in the process of a divorce. Selling the love of my life house. Buying a new condo (holy goodness, I close this week!). Trying to manage how to live alone for the first time in a long while. And still managing the grieving process of my dad passing away a year and a half ago. Leaving corporate America. Best friends becoming not so best friends because of where life takes you.
And trying to navigate a compass of life when you’re awfully bad at directions.
Through this… there are constants. Like the clouds in the sky. Or knowing that “The Price Is Right” is always going to be on at 11 AM.
But the best constant? My animals.
I adopted Harold when he was way too early to be adopted because it was his situation, and the best situation he could have been put into was my life.
He’s an almost 19 year old mutt. A half frenchie and chihuahua. (At least I think so.) And then there’s Luke, my five year old cat that has the most lax life ever. I mean, seriously.
But even more than my pets, is the relaxation and happiness that I see when people post theirs. On Facebook. Insta. Twitter comments about what their parents are thinking. Whatever, really. I joined all of these “I love rabbit,” “I love rat,” “I love chinchilla” groups when I started blogging for Small Pet Select. And when I joined them, I thought that I had to.
And now I’ll never leave them. Not because I can’t. Because when I wake up at 5, I’m like “what bunny’s going to be my heart throb today?” I legit get crushes on rabbits. Sorry, not sorry.
I saw a post about Winston the other day. He was a hairless rat who had an honestly long life. But his mom was devastated. Losing a pet is losing a kid. I don’t care what anyone says and I’m typing on my keys really hard right now because I feel so connected and strong about those words.
Whether your bunny. Your Chin. Your rat. Your cat. Your dog. Holy gosh, your cow.
Animals will never, ever fail you.
So, “Gloria, I adoria ya.” And I adoria every animal. We care about every animal. Big. Tall. Hairy. Not. Cute. Not so handsome. One that goes potty inside or one who doesn’t know where the door is.
That’s also a Happy Feet quote, if you didn’t know. (The adoria part. I made up the other.)
I want every person in the entire universe to feel the extreme love of what an animal can do for you.
Because they’ve been my saving grace. And that.
…Is perfection. At it’s finest.
#animaltherapyisreal
