World Peace and Puppies
January 3, 2023
My oldest son returned home from active duty last September. He is in the Army and will be serving in the reserves in a few months. He is living at home for now and helps with landscaping, barn chores (he can single handedly stack 100 bales of hay), horse care, and puppy care. My youngest son is an officer in the Army reserves. He and his wife and their beloved, Golden Retriever live in Cincinnati.
Both of my sons are physical specimens of brawn, strength, and fitness. They are tough. Both were undaunted by the physical challenges the Army presented. The unit PT (Physical Training) tests were simply goals to be crushed. And they usually crushed them. They are proud strapping young men, and we of course are proud of them.
But when they hold these fresh puppies, there is a strange serendipity. My big, sturdy, raucous, formidable Army soldiers become gentle, lullaby-singing, baby talking, silly boys.
The oldest, Jordan, all of 6’ 1”, folds his lanky body so that he may nap in the whelping pen. He has composed a “Puppy Reveille” to wake the puppies for a feeding. They lift their heads, wiggle and wag when he sings, “Puppy puppy puppy, puppy poo.” Jordan has heard Reveille bugled every morning for five years, so the tune is ingrained. Luna, puppy mama, will feed the puppies longer if Jordan lays with her in the whelping pen. It’s beginning to get crowded.
click to play video clips
IMG_0754 click for puppy Reveille
IMG_9850 I need to give them ‘keeses.
Evan (we call him “Captain Evan” so that he doesn’t take himself too seriously), has his own dog, Poppy. She is, according to Evan and his wife, PERFECT in every way. He refers to her as “Poppy Pants.” He has over 2,000 pictures of her on his phone. When he holds Luna’s puppies, his first reaction is to give them kisses. He babbles, “I need to give them ‘keeses.’ “ He inhales them as he holds them. It’s wonderfully absurd.
Puppies are magical creatures. They grow into furry, four-legged, body, heart, and soul healers. If soldiers that are trained for combat can curl up in a whelping pen and allow puppies to step on their faces and suckle their earlobes, perhaps our communities, countries, and continents at odds, exasperated and irritated, could be gentled by a puppy. Perhaps if we cuddled more puppies, the world would be less broken. We’d experience brotherhood while being smothered by a litter of puppies. Of course that’s a ridiculous notion, but what is truly ridiculous is the love of a dog.
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