What I Have Learned From My Dogs

The day I was released from rehab to go home, I had so many thoughts running through my head, the main one being “How will people see me?” Will they see me or just my leg, or lack of?” or “Do they only want to see me to see what I look like without a leg?” To be honest, I did not yet know how I saw myself, as I only had one leg. It was all too new, too foreign to describe how I saw this new me. For a while, I would not even post any photos on my social media of me in a wheelchair or any pictures of me from the waist down. It was just business as usual, it was as if nothing had happened, or that is what I was trying to portray. Was I fooling anyone, probably not, but I would like to think I was.

It was not until I was playing with my pups, Chloe and Pepe on the living room floor, that I realized that my pups never cared about this huge change in my appearance. When I rolled through the door for the first time since my amputation, I was afraid they were going to bark at my chair or go run and hide too scared to say hello. To be honest it was the complete opposite. Instead, they ran up to me so happy, so full of wiggles and tail wags. Chloe was so excited to see me, she peed on the kitchen floor. Hmmm, they did not teach me how to clean up after my pup in rehab.

This got me thinking, why don’t my dogs care about my new appearance? There is only one answer, because they love me unconditionally and appearances don’t matter to them. I could come home with absolutely no limbs, and they would still love me the same, just as long as they got fed, got their cookies, and peanut butter mats. If that did not happen, then I am sure they may have some words for me. My point is we all change, some changes are mild, and some are pretty drastic. But when it’s all said and done at the end of the day, those who love you don’t care about changes to your image, because all they will ever see is you. And that my friends I did not learn from my therapist or a self-help book or podcast, but rather from my two loving pups, Pepe and Chloe.