Loyalty

The greatest reason people love their dogs so much is their unwavering loyalty. It is their greatest character attribute and their best example to humans. But dogs are not born with loyalty to humans. First they are born with instinct. They trust their instinct more than they trust you as a human. It is only over time that they learn to override their instinct and begin to trust you above all else that they feel.

Loyalty, trust, honesty. These are things that we can learn from our dogs.

My first bouvier dog was Vike. He was a very strong male and he was always by my side. But, it took three years for him to learn to trust me over his instincts screaming at him. He put aside what instinct told him to do to protect himself and he trusted me instead. It took a long time before he would let me roll him over to a vulnerable position, to open his mouth and let me put my hands inside his throat to reach for a bone stuck inside. He trusted me with his life.

Kuma was a more trusting little girl. She trusted people earlier. She loved people and was happiest around people. But these people that she was loyal to all her life left her alone in the last years of her life. They forgot about her, abandoned her and left her alone. What she needed most at the end of her life was their company. But, they were not there. They left her to die.

In the end, Kuma only had me for company in the dark garage. The people she loved left her. This was the reward she got for her loyalty to them, for her trust in them.

It was in this darkness that I got to see Kuma's strength of character.

How about you? Are you as loyal to your dog as your dog is to you? Are you loyal to your friends, to your family? Have you felt the betrayal that came from someone you were loyal to and thought they were loyal to you until they stabbed you with the betrayal dagger? Would you betray your best friend to save $1,000 in vet bills and not even bother to ask for more information about their recovery? Would betray your business partner who helped build you up to get ahead yourself? Would you hide in your betrayal from all your friends?

Does loyalty eventually end in betrayal? For humans too often the answer is yes. For Kuma and dogs, the answer is no. Kuma was loyal beyond death.