A tryst with a beautiful soul...!

Have u met one of those people who have a beautiful soul? The kind that literally turns ur head and makes u want to know them better. Makes u smile even though you don’t know them personally.Well, Jake was one such soul. He lit up the room as he loped around smiling up at people, even though not many returned his smile.
We were at the Big bear discovery centre and hubby was asking the receptionist for some directions. All of a sudden, the receptionist pointed to something behind hubby and started laughing. When hubby turned around, he found his wife standing with her feet planted firmly and knees locked while a huge golden retriever stood pushing himself against her thigh, both mutually enjoying a love fest of head scratching. And before u guys get round to asking the question, let me tell u the answer.No, he did not. I was scratching Jake’s head and he was NOT scratching my head.

Jake walked in with his family, consisting of a dad and a couple of boys .He was a strong fellow and the little boy could not hold him back well enuf as the strong golden retriever jumped about in excitement and rushed to say hello to everyone in sight. Most people shied away from the huge creature while I stood in total shock. He brought so much colour into the room. How could one resist that deep honey coloured coat and that big wide smile. Those bright warm eyes spoke so much and that plumy tail waved a hi so gracefully. There is no other way to say this but that I fell in love.
I normally do not go towards a dog here in the USA but rather wait for the dog to come to me.I have learned from experience that most dog owners here are a bit worried about a total stranger petting their dog as this is a country where everyone sues everyone else for everything they can think of. There are a few people who don’t mind and are sure of their dogs. This time I did not wait. I could not. I walked forward holding out both my hands and felt a bittersweet joy surge thru me. His owner smiled at me and asked Jake to hold out his paw for me. As I took his paw, Jake immediately put his other paw on my hand as though making a deal then and there. His owner said “Oh ,he likes u.He does that only to people he really likes”. Jake was as delighted as I was. No one else wanted to pat him. I buried my fingers into his thick coat and rubbed him while I chatted to his owner.Jake pushed himself so hard up against me that I had to literally push back at him to keep the pair of us from toppling over. I did not want to let him go.I wanted to go down on my knees and hug him. He was so huge that he wud easily come upto my shoulders if he stood on his hind legs.His owner exclaimed “There, U seem to have made a friend”. Both the dog and I had identical wide goofy grins on our faces.

He did not want to go and I did not want him to. But his family had come to take him on a hike and while we were content to stay that way, they obviously were not. They asked him if he was ready to leave and he obviously was not given the way he was trying to embed himself in my leg.Finally, with a wrenching reluctance that ran soul deep, I gave him a final pat and said “Good boy, Jake.Go!”.That’s when the intelligent animal turned round, looked at me and pattered off obediently with his folks. And to me, it seemed as though the sunshine had just walked out of the room.