Paw Prints

Owning a Cowdog means you’re required to go outside. Every day. No exceptions. And I’m not talking about just using the bathroom – I’m talking full-on exercise. So when it’s cold and dumping rain, you better put on your raincoat and get ready to wash some towels. And nothing brings out a Dirty, Muddy paw print like a shiny white porcelain tile floor.

At first, I couldn’t stand it. Constantly mopping up after the perfect trail of wet paw prints leading to the sofa, the kitchen, then back to the sofa. I have to give up some control. And Cowdog people are not the cleanest people. There’s a reason Labradors make the cover of Better Home and Garden magazine. It’s not that we don’t try, we just, well, can’t. It’s not up to us. Remember, everything belongs to Dirt.

Cowdogs require a lifestyle suitable for the breed. And by “suitable,” I mean you better have a lifestyle they mesh seamlessly with or be willing to change parts of your lifestyle to adapt to theirs. So, for example, suppose you don’t adhere to the previous sentence and get a working breed (Malinois, Dutch, border collies, heeler, etc., basically any breed that uses their mouth to get a job done), you’re gonna have a real problem on your hands and a part-time job cleaning your house.

Paw prints, like stained rugs, tell a story. They remind us where we’ve been. Evidence of the past. We try to wash off the imperfections and get irritated when they leave a mark, but those paw prints remind us that there is no such thing as the perfect house, only a perfect home. And that nobody has all the answers. We’re all just figuring it out. I’m not saying you have to be like us and only take baths every other Tuesday, but what I am saying is stop trying to wipe up your tracks before anyone notices.

Those around us, whom we often admire, are just as flawed as we are. The difference with those we respect is they have taken the time to acknowledge and learn from their tracks. They take inventory of which tracks led them where they wanted to go and which led them off course.

We want to give the impression we live a life so squeaky clean that our white carpet never gets dirt on it, but that's far from the truth. White rugs either mean somebody is doing a lot of cleaning or not enough living. Yep. I said it.

People want to see the trail you took to get where you are. They want to see the paw prints and scuff marks. The hair-covered furniture and the stained rug. Even the five vacuums you have stored in the closet for your white carpet. It makes us feel safe. Reminds us that we’re more alike than we are different and to not take life so seriously. Get out in the rain and embrace the mess.

I got a new truck in high school. Not new, but new to me. I called my sweetheart – on a flip phone – “Hey princess, be ready in twenty,” I told her, “we’re going to Sonic.”

When I picked her up, I looked cooler than a penguin drinking a frozen margarita on top of an iceberg at the North Pole during a snowstorm. We whipped into Sonic and ordered two large Oreo blizzards. My graceful girlfriend had a hammer grip on the straw and stabbed through the top like a hot toothpick through a marshmallow. Just as the straw grazed her lips, the plastic lid and the styrofoam cup decided to get a divorce, and all sixty-four ounces of Oreo blizzard shared custody on every inch of my newish interior.

She laughed hysterically. I did not. She was mature. I was not. She saw paw prints. I saw a blizzard.

If you can’t find any paw prints, maybe it’s time to leave some. If you get lost, just trace them back. And bring a notepad but leave the microscope. Don’t get distracted by the details, that's what therapy is for. Just scribble a few things down, then pull out the vacuum and have a great Sunday!

Stay Dirty!