{"id":36412,"date":"2022-04-24T22:03:13","date_gmt":"2022-04-25T03:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=36412"},"modified":"2022-04-24T22:03:13","modified_gmt":"2022-04-25T03:03:13","slug":"lonely-older-man-finds-new-life-through-meeting-and-loving-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/?p=36412","title":{"rendered":"Lonely older man finds new life through meeting and loving dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

When we rescue animals, it\u2019s just as likely that they\u2019re going to rescue us. That\u2019s been true for me over the years. I\u2019ve had as many as five dogs and as many as 13 cats, but I\u2019m down to just one dog, Lucy, and two cats, Merlin and Thomas. (Here\u2019s their Instagram account<\/a>.)<\/p>\n

I found an amazing example of the power of animal influence earlier today. On Reddit, someone posted a letter<\/a> he received from a neighbor. This person had asked the neighbor \u2014 an older man who lives alone \u2014 to babysit the family\u2019s two dogs and a cat while the rest of the household was on vacation.<\/p>\n

The person who received the letter described the animals as a German shepherd and a cat (named Oreo), along with \u201cthe crankiest little beagle you\u2019ve ever seen in your life.\u201d But this little collection of animals somehow changed the old man\u2019s life.<\/p>\n

I found the man\u2019s story moving.\u00a0The letter is long, but I\u2019m going to quote the entire thing:<\/p>\n

\u201cThis letter is regarding your vacation two weeks ago, and how you let me\u00a0babysit Smokey, Oreo, and Jennifer. I\u2019d just like to give you a letter of thanks.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cAs you know, I\u2019m an old man. You don’t see me outside often anymore, as\u00a0these joints aren\u2019t as lively as they used to be. To add to that, two years ago, in\u00a0the midst of the pandemic, my dad got diagnosed with stage four colon cancer\u00a0After his death, I was left alone in my home. I don’t have a wife or kids. I could go\u00a0to sleep one day and never wake up again. Every day is spent just sitting around<\/em>\u00a0and wondering what I have done for this world.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cUntil I met Smokey. Oreo, and Jennifer.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cYour pets are the cutest, funniest, and most troublesome (In a good way,\u00a0don’t worry, they didn’t mess up the house too much!) individuals. They gave me the motivation to restart my life again. I started waking up early in the mornings. I\u00a0began to take walks outside with your pets for the first time in years. Every 10\u00a0minutes, whenever I felt sad for a second, they would bark or rub against my leg\u00a0and make me laugh.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cThe highlight of their stay was when I took them to the park. It was the\u00a0longest time I’ve spent outside in a while. It didn’t just bring back pet interaction, I\u00a0also met other people, started talking, and made friends with a handful of fellow\u00a0human beings. I was so happy to finally be able to talk with friends again, interact\u00a0with others, and feel like I’m part of the human race.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI realize I sound very existential right now, but I’m telling the truth. It’s nice\u00a0knowing that I’m doing something for someone, even if it’s my neighbor.<\/em><\/p>\n

I adopted two pet dogs soon after. (You may have been hearing noise from\u00a0my home, pardon therl) I now take regular walks to the park with them and talk\u00a0with friends I made there. Anyways, I’d just like to say: thank you so much. You\u00a0brought back meaning to my life. And that’s all that matters,<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cSincerely,<\/em>
\n\u201cRobert\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Never doubt the power of animals to change our lives. It’s true that we can rescue them, but it’s equally true that they have the power to rescue us — and many of us are badly in need of rescue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we rescue animals, it\u2019s just as likely that they\u2019re going to rescue us. That\u2019s been true for me over the years. I\u2019ve had as many as five dogs and as many as 13 cats, but I\u2019m down to just one dog, Lucy, and two cats, Merlin and Thomas. (Here\u2019s their Instagram account.) I found Keep Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-36412","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1x9iR-9ti","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36412","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=36412"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36412\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36421,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36412\/revisions\/36421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=36412"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=36412"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/davidmcelroy.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=36412"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}