Everybody Loves Homer
I’ve written about my sister’s dog before and my immense love I have for this lab hound mix.
Homer isn’t that well trained. He sits when he wants, but on command when dinner is about to be served. He gives up his toy when and if he wishes. He comes when it suits him, returning from a good chase when he determines it’s over. He has stopped jumping on my car when I arrive, calling on higher powers to control himself until I step out when he rolls over for his belly rub.
Trained, not trained, half-trained, it doesn’t matter. Homer exudes joy. His enthusiasm is what prevents him from being well-behaved. And what makes him so damn loveable.
He stole my heart long ago, but recently I learned his winning personality had won over many others. I am part of a large ever-growing fan group.
First came the driver of a white truck with the steel snow plow who slowed to say hello to Homer, not me, on a winter morning.
Next, it was a garden truck slowing down on another jaunt to say, “Hey, Homer.”
The fellow who services the propane tank at my sister’s house stopped by, not because the tank needed refueling, but because he wanted to give Homer a treat.
The painter of what I call our train room (a tiny extra bedroom), asked after Homer (knowing I am his Aunt), his face lighting up. Homer reminds of his childhood dog in Brazil who zipped through the forest. Cristano did not know that Homer flies by me so fast on the trails that I once hugged the nearest tree lest he knock me over.
When my sister, her husband, and Homer took a road trip to Virginia two weeks ago, a woman in the hotel lobby asked if she could hug him since he had looked straight into her eyes as he walked past. My sister and her family chose him in part because of that stare. When he was brought into the room where she, her husband, and two children sat at the local shelter, he made the rounds, stopping at each family member and holding his gaze before moving to the next.
Homer isn’t a charmer. He is an equal opportunity lover sensing the connection to be had in each encounter, human, or nature romp. Homer treats each person, each moment with an unmatched vigor. “Damn, it is so good to be alive, I’ve never been so happy as right now.”
Everybody loves Homer (full disclosure–not my hubby since Homer’s nose bumps him “you know where” at every hello) because he is a reminder of the joy to be had right now through connecting unabashedly. We all need a Homer in our lives. And to be a Home…what would our days look like if we adopted even a smidgen of his wag and swag?