Taking the time to smell the .... dogs?

Yesterday, in celebration of five more years of life, my partner G and I took the whole day off work to just be together.  Days like this are rare for us.  We both own small businesses and between those and our kids we typically confine ourselves to a couple hours of down time at a go.  But yesterday, wahoooo, we were on vacation for a day.  The highlight?  Well there were several actually but what I want to tell you about is the time at the Boulder Humane Society.

G and I are both animal lovers - between us we have four cats and two dogs.  So we don't need any more critters in the house.  But I wanted to go simply to share some love with animals who are still waiting for a home.  G indulged me;  I knew, or thought I knew, that going to the humane society was not really his idea of a good time and yet he seemed happy enough with the plan.  When we got in the building I went straight to the dogs and G followed.  In all of our years together G had always described himself as "not a dog person".  This has been shifting of course being that he spends his days with my amazing, perfect, gorgeous, cute, smart, insert everything positive thing you could ever say about a dog, dogs.  But if you pointed this out to him - that he has fallen in love with three dogs over the last few years - he would say that Zoe and Zeke and Boots are not really dogs; they are / were somehow different than the average dog on the streets.  In other words, just like getting to know people of a different race or culture, you find common ground and love blooms where you might not have expected it.  (This could be a whole other post.)  Back to the humane society:  my dear life partner walked from stall to stall positively cooing at the dogs.  Reaching as far as he could through the bars, he was scratching behind ears, rubbing noses, giving warm words of encouragement.  He would come find me every few minutes to tell me about a dog - this one is on hold for a home, this one was abandoned, this one was transferred here from another shelter.  I was amazed that this man who I thought was humoring me by not only coming but by visiting the dogs (he is a self-proclaimed "cat person"), was genuinely touched and interested in the well being of the dogs.  Long story short:  no we did not come home with any animals.  We stayed true to our intention.  But I did fall in love all over again - not with a dog or a cat but with the man who opened his heart and took the time to pet a bunch of scruffy, needy, beautiful, homeless dogs.