by Brian
In Jolee’s comic, Junior is meeting Taur for the first time as Taur is not feeling well. In true form, Junior jumps in to help his new friend.
I am definitely a dog person! This week, I thought we could discuss the critical role that our dog, Junior, plays in our family’s daily lives. He is a Bichon Frise, which is a breed that often wins best in show with its cotton ball head and fluffy body. Although Junior is very cute, he is not winning any beauty competitions anytime soon.
I have many allergies including dog dander (and please don’t get me started on cats). Luckily, like the very popular poodle mixes (Labradoodle, Goldendoodle, Fill-in-the-blankdoodle), our dog Junior does not shed and has hypoallergenic fur. His size – about 25 lbs., and his demeanor – very needy, fits in perfectly with our family.
Junior does have his flaws. He has a bit of Napoleon complex and feels the need to aggressively stand up against larger dogs to show who is alpha. He insists on sleeping in our bed and snores quite loudly for a smaller dog. There have been many nights that I have been awakened and nudged Bobbie to get her to stop snoring only to find that it is in fact the small white puff ball that is keeping me up. He also likes to wedge himself against you and push so that he can really tell that you are still there. Perhaps he wasn’t loved enough as a pup before we rescued him. However, this is not always ideal for us adults trying to get a peaceful night’s sleep.
Although we initially chose Junior for his low allergy qualities, we won the lottery with his personality and all he brings to the family. In our crazy house, we can have 1-2 people melting down at any time, and Junior has been the antidote for when anyone is feeling down, upset or altogether depressed. We used to wonder why he was so exhausted at night, but if you ever follow Junior throughout his day you would see how he tirelessly runs between every family member asking for attention and making them feel better.
Although he was never trained as a therapy dog, he comes by it naturally. When someone is upset, he will come and lay next to them. If you ignore him, Junior will whine at you until you start to pet him and calm down. If someone is extremely upset and beyond listening to reason, Junior will make a loud, yipping sound that is attention grabbing and very hard to ignore. This was particularly helpful when we were in lockdown from COVID and our kids were more temperamental and lonely than normal.
Junior has even come in handy as the kids have been working toward their independence. In addition to soothing the family’s emotions, Junior has also been a big part of Dylan and Jolee learning responsibility. We have started to let him stay with the kids if we were out for the night or otherwise unavailable for a while. It has been great to see how much they care for Junior which makes them step up and make sure he is taken care of. Who knew our dog would be the one to teach such a powerful lesson on our journey.
