Doggie Love Letters

Are you head-over heels devoted to your dog?

Is your dog your best friend or confidant or possibly your "child"?


Then, here is a MUST READ:

A Letter To My Dog is a set of love letters from 57 pet owners to their dogs complied by Kimi Culp, Robin Layton, Lisa Erspamer, and publisher Geoff Blackwell. The letters are filled with words such as "hero," "funny," "loyalty," and "unconditional" showing the unwavering love these people have for their dogs.

What would you tell your beloved pet?

Read what others say and be sure to have plenty of tissues.

Pets Can Help Us

Tests have shown that owning a pet can help people attain a better level of physical health. Petting an animal can lower your heart rate and your blood pressure and even promote healing. Also, recent studies show that having pets at work lowers stress levels and makes employees more productive.

But pets can help us in other ways, too. They help us to relax and focus on things other than our problems.

Pets fulfill the natural craving we have for emotional relationships. Whenever we do something for another living thing, we feel better about ourselves. Here are some other ways pets make us feel better:

A Cure for Loneliness

Pets can help us to feel less lonely and isolated. Feeling needed also works to foster positive feelings. Pets give a sense of purpose; they always need something – food, a walk, a stroke, and a kind word, and they are usually appreciative. As an added benefit, if you leash up your dog and take a walk through the neighborhood or through a dog-friendly park, more than likely someone will talk to you. Studies have shown that people walking with a dog talk to new people far more often than if the dog was not with them.

Coming home to your pet gives you something to look forward to. Dogs may score highest in "greetings," but most pets are delighted to see their owners walk through the door and will show it in some way. If you have a pet, you are not alone.

Someone to Love

If you love your pet, that love comes back to you tenfold. It is love of the best kind – unconditional and enduring. Animals offer this love, along with reliable companionship – often for a lot less trouble than having a relationship with a human. No matter how cranky you get, your pet always forgives you and continues to show affection.

Physical Contact

Cuddling and stroking your pet is good for you and helps you to forget about your day at work or your boredom. Petting an animal helps to promote a sense of pleasure and calmness.

Someone to Talk To

It is a known fact that talking things out relieves a lot of internal pressure, but just having someone to talk to makes a difference, too. Talk about anything – your pet will listen, and, even better, he will not disagree. Share your thoughts, feelings, troubles, worries – or say something stupid – your pet will still love you.

Sense of Security

Certain animals promote a sense of safety. Your dog will bark to warn you of impending danger. But the sense of having someone with you is often enough to make you feel less anxious and more secure.

Motivation to Move

If your pet needs to be walked every day, you will be exercising – whether you want to or not. Walking with your dog also helps you to deal with the physical stress of the day. Walking gives you an opportunity to get outside and breathe fresh air.

The Human-animal Bond

The strength of the human-animal bond is not a myth. Although life with a pet is not always easy, the joy of pet ownership can be a wonderful experience. A slurpy kiss from your dog promotes very special feelings and creates a human/animal bond that can last for many years.

Dog Appreciation

Have you stopped recently to appreciate what your dog teaches you?

Yes, our dogs teach us many things.

I will start with unconditional love.  Every dog owner knows the exuberant greeting received each and everytime you come home.  You do not even have to leave home to be greeted with such love; just call your dog's name in a happy voice and she is there radiating affection.

Dogs teach us the experience of joy. Every morning as we begin our walk, Ebony is bounding with pure joy. She reminds me that life is to be joyfully experienced no matter what.  Do you find joy in your life and allow it to flow through you?

Dogs have been considered the servant of humanity throughout history. A reminder of the importance of serving others or humanity in some way.

A dog embodies the loving gentleness of best friend and the half-wild protector energy of territorial imperative. They have that ability to sense postive or negative energy.  Are you aware of vibrational energy?

Dogs can be comforting and a companion when needed.  They are healers in the true sense just by their presence.  Our Comfort Care Therapy Progam at Hospice has a Animal Assisted Therapist on the team.

Dogs can put a smile on your face through action or deed.  They can be outrageously funny.  A great reminder to laugh on a regular basis.......it is good for you!

STOP what you are doing right now.
  Tell your dog, THANK YOU!