*Trigger warning: My dog passed yesterday. If you lost a friend recently, you might want to skip this.* This is not going to be a funny or witty post. Just a reflection on the life of a friend. Yes, I know that animals are not people. But Dillon was a member of my family all the same. I need to cathart. Right after adopting him. That's Lucy on the left When we got him, he had already been twice abandoned at the shelter, so he always had issues. He was scared of other dogs (talking about you Ahsoka), strangers, deer, vacuums, brooms, leaves, and rain. But he was the most affectionate dog. As long as it was a member of the family: me, my wife, my wife's sister. A very small pack. We could never really get him comfortable around other people. We even brought in a professional pet behaviorist and she was stumped. "Just have people throw cheese at him when they come over to visit. He'll probably get used to them eventually." (Nope) All he wanted to do all day was cuddl...
Here's an interesting article I read this morning. Please don’t rearrange our shoes when we turn up, paramedics in Japan urge TLDR: It is customary in Japan to remove your shoes when entering a house. It is also customary for the host to rearrange the shoes neatly. Paramedics are having trouble getting their shoes back on while carrying stretchers because the shoes have been tidied up. This is fascinating! It is so much a part of the culture that emergency workers will stop to remove shoes before giving treatment. And family members will stoop down to move the shoes while their loved ones are having a medical emergency. I've been trying to think what we do in America that would have the same level of compliance. I'm sort of drawing a blank. The only thing that I can think of is how I always answer "You too!" to someone who tells me to have a great day. I don't know if this is more an indictment of Japanese culture for being too rigid or American culture for b...