knowing my duty

I say yes sometimes to things for selfish reasons. I agree to extra work, babysitting, and in this particular case, dog sitting sometimes for reasons that would only benefit myself...like extra money.

This tendency of mine became abundantly clear in the last week when I agreed to house sit/dog sit for a dear family that I know here in Boulder. They have a dog who I was instructed "to not take around other dogs" because historically she hasn't maintained the most polite of manners. I took this into consideration yes, but as the week went on found myself eager to bend the rules slightly, for how harmful could things really be?

As my mother came into town for a visit from Georgia, we were standing in the kitchen of my own home with my new dog for the week and two other golden retrievers who live with me. For about thirty minutes we were all standing around as the dogs co-mingled in the kitchen, and about twenty minutes into their time together, things turned dark pretty quickly.

All of a sudden the dog under my care snapped and she and one of the golden retrievers were in a genuine brawl. It took about five seconds for me to intervene, as I grabbed the dog by the harness and removed her forcefully onto the back porch. Fearful of what might have happened to the golden retriever, I immediately scanned the dog's body for wounds. Seeing nothing, I was immediately relieved. Until I walked out to the back porch to discover blood coming from the dog I was sitting, I filled with fear.

The dog was pretty badly wounded, but after an emotional conversation and hard pressure held to the wounds for quite some time, I realized something...I was taking only myself into consideration the whole time I had been house sitting and dog sitting. I tried to take short cuts and not really adhere to the dog's needs and found that this pattern of behavior needed to stop.

I was frozen in my behavior, and am seeing now the importance of thinking before accepting a proposition. And if the proposition is accepted, it should be done with full responsibility, dedication, and appreciation for all parties involved. It was an eye opener for sure.