October 04, 2019

E60 A Dog's Purpose And What It Can Mean For You

12 minutes

Ashlie: (00:17)
Welcome back to another episode of Tactical Living by LEO Warriors. I'm your host, Ashlie Walton.

Clint:

And I'm your co-host Clint Walton.

Ashlie:

In today's episode, we're going to share with you how watching the movie A Dog's Purpose really instilled the fact that our own dogs truly have a purpose and a place in our world. And as you listen, I'm certain if you have a dog that you can also relate. So just sit back, relax and enjoy today's content.

Ashlie: (00:49)
Clint and I don't get out to the movie theater very often. Maybe once or twice a year at best, and that's on purpose. We much prefer the comfort of our own home, on our own couch, watching movies on Clint’s 80-inch television with our dogs wrapped up all with us. Last weekend, we had an opportunity to watch the movie A Dog's Purpose. And as you sit there, if you've seen that movie…you know the emotion I'm about to discuss.

Clint: (01:25)
Yeah.

Ashlie: (01:27)
My husband is so sweet. It seemed that as soon as we started watching that movie and I started to ugly cry, I look over at him and he's handing me a hanky that he's so generously prepared before we sat down to watch this, fully knowing that it would just be the first of many bouts at these ugly tears that I would cry throughout the duration of the movie. And I've been thinking about my mom a lot lately.

Ashlie: (01:55)
There's some changes going on in my dad's home and I'm sure that that is sparked a lot of it for me.

Ashlie: (02:02)
But in watching this movie, what it reminded me of was the night that my mom died and the relation with our dog Bella.

Ashlie: (02:13)
We've had Bella now for 12 years.

Ashlie: (02:19)
When we got her, I remember it perfectly because we actually bought her from one of my old employees. We went over to her house to pick the dog up. I remember we had spent about $400 in supplies for this dog. Clint and I were having a house renovated and saying with my folks for a couple months and my mom made it very clear that we were not allowed to keep the dog there whatsoever. So I made arrangements with a friend, bought everything…I went over to his house. I set up the pin that night Clint and I went to go pick her up.

Speaker 3: (02:56)
Yeah.

Ashlie: (02:58)
And as soon as went there, the mother dog had these heinous black eyebrows drawn on her face with a black sharpie. She was a cream colored Pomeranian. And I just remember shaking my head thinking like, thank goodness we're taking this puppy out of this home.

Clint:

Like, if you could realize…if you know who Groucho Marx is and just realize this dog with a cigar hanging out of his mouth. It was a spitting image. It was hilarious.

Ashlie: (03:28)
Clint and I are from different times so I have no idea who that is. But we pick the dog up. We take her over to my parent’s house. It might've been the next day, because I remember when we drove home it was dark out. So we took her to go meet my parents. My mom, for whatever reason, was out in the front yard when we got there. And I remember pulling this little puppy out from my side and handing it to my mom and she instantly looked at her, looked at me and said, ‘you can keep her here under one condition.’

Ashlie: (04:07)
And I look at her, like completely in shock because it was crystal clear that we were not allowed to have a dog at the house, especially if it was going to be a puppy. And that came out of left field. I don't know if the dog just stole my mom's heart instantly or what the deal was with that. But I said, what is, what is the condition? And she said, ‘I have to name her.’ And I said, okay, what are you going to name her? My mom's Italian. And she decided to name her Bella. So we go to my friend's house, pick up all of Bella's things and go home. We were sharing my old bedroom at the time, so we set up her crate. Everything was great. My mom took care of her all day while Clint and I were at work. She crate trained her, although we later found out that she actually snuck her out of the crate all day and let her roam around the house…meaning that my mom really didn't mind taking care of this puppy. She was happy to do it. And how that relates to watching this movie and how Bella reacted that night that my mom passed away… It was something unexpected. It was unexpected because, and this isn't to, as you sit there, my intention is not to bring down the mood, but it's just to set the precedents for how I remember that night. The coroner had left after taking my mom away and we sat on the front porch. I told Clint, I just needed to sit there.

Ashlie: (05:49)
And maybe a good 20 minutes had gone by. And Clint I owned at the time, both homes on either side of my mom and we lived in one of them. We've since sold one of them. And so we, we walked to the side of my parent’s house. We had a little cutout in the gate. So we had easy access to our front door and we went home. And I remember as soon as we walk in the door, Bella was standing at the top of the couch and the way she acted was so strange. Her ears were back and she was smelling me and she was just looking up. I mean, I told Clint right away, I remember saying that to you…like, she knows my mom died…like she could smell it on me.

Clint: (06:34)
Yeah. And, and Bella has a completly different reaction every time we come home. She's always the excited dog to see us and she's always so energetic and just so happy all the time. And to see her that way. Just when we walked through the door immediately.

Ashlie: (06:54)
It was just a shock to both of us. Yeah. It really was. And my mom loved Bella and throughout the time, even as Bella grew in age, before my mom passed away, we would take Bella over to my mom and dad's house because we lived right next door and they would often watch Bella. So my mom had company while my dad was gone at work and Bella wasn't home alone. We didn't have any other dogs at that time. We only had Bella for a majority of our marriage. I know, I just thought that was something I had never expected was for a dog to sense something like that. And it made me feel like I wasn't alone. My good friend, Mike Demo, he just ran an episode about his own dog, Elvis.

Ashlie: (07:50)
And that's another thing that drew me to want to talk about my own relationship with our oldest dog was really. That seemed like a couple of times that the universe was tugging at me to bring forth this topic. And what I want to discuss is how important it is for us to just stop some times and realize the purpose of our dogs and their purpose can be whatever we want it to be. And most importantly, it's whatever we allow it to be. Clint and I have since gotten two other Pomeranians and they're our world. We don't have any children. Our dogs are literally our kids. I couldn't imagine something happening to them.

Ashlie: (08:43)
And I'm just so grateful that we have them in our lives to share a space with, to share memories with, and to really be able to enjoy life with. Think about all of the happy times that you have in your own life. If you have a dog or if you've had a dog, I'm sure thinking back on all of those moments, you can remember that dog in the picture. You can remember Christmas time with the dog sitting around the tree. Maybe you can remember a time in your life where you just broke down sobbing and maybe the only thing, the only person, the only fur person that was there was your dog and in your allowance for opening up and allowing them to be there and having this pacifier, this ability to just pet a dog, to hold a dog, to even talk to a dog. It's so therapeutic whether we realize it or not, and maybe as you sit there, it's not a dog for you. Maybe it's a different kind of pet. I get that.

Ashlie: (09:57)
We've had other pets before. It just so happens that none of them have withstanding the duration of, you know, moving in life the way that our dogs have.

Ashlie: (10:10)
It's just another beautiful asset of the world that we live in

Ashlie: (10:16)
And it's another ability for us to hold on to. And I say that because traveling to countries like Thailand, there's some of the most beautiful dogs and they're just ageing for attention and they're just like trash on the side of the road. And that's because in that culture they wouldn't dare perceive their dogs the way that we do in America. And there's a lot of backstory and reasons behind that, but I think that by living in the country that we do, in embracing dogs the way that we have, and first of all not eating them… it's a beautiful thing to have that relationship with a pet. And as you sit there, it's just my hope that maybe we spend a little bit more time with our dogs. We give them a little bit more attention and most importantly we give them credit for being there regardless.

Ashlie: (11:17)
There are companions through every life event and they don't have a choice, but they wouldn't have in any other way. And when you understand that, when you have a relationship with your pet and you choose to embrace that, and you as you're sitting there, if you have a dog, especially, I know how much you care about your dog, and that relationship is so special. And the more relationships we can have like that, be it with a pet or be it with another human, that's what the world is all about. And when you understand that and you're open to having those relationships, then you're really able to enjoy your Tactical Living.