Happiness From A Tree?

A happy and sweet experience always occurs when you least expect it. At least for me, and until I actually started writing these little blogs I didn't realize how many of these I actually get to be a part of. This week...

My doggie client Maddy, a Dachshund Beagle mix, is one of my long time regulars (plus one of the first doggies I was actually trained on many many moons ago). I use to see her almost every day but as our client list grows, the easy pups like Maddy get passed to newbie walkers. I still get to see her a handful of times a month and today was that day!

Maddy lives in the upstairs of a two family house. The owners are a very sweet older couple who live downstairs. Whenever they are outside I always make it a point to say hello just because I know they like the little conversation (and I was always taught to be polite!) Maddy usually likes to rush outside, pee on the front lawn and then just sit in the grass and watch all the people and cars go by (it's a main road). But today she actually wanted to walk in the backyard, but there was a reason. The older gentleman and one of his other tenants were shooting the breeze outside...next to a huge tree that had a big broken branch hanging from it.

As soon as I got close enough the gentleman said hello and started to tell me about the tree. Now this tree is huge, and beautiful, and it was a bit sad to see it..broken. Turns out that the house the older couple owns has been in his family for generations. And that beautiful huge tree in the backyard? He planted it as small sapling with his father. He went on to say he had pictures from the day he planted it, and I told him he should take a picture of it now and put them in side by side frames (if it was such a sentimental thing to him). His eyes lit up and he literally started yelling for his wife to come outside with a camera..not a phone but an actual camera!

All this time sweet Maddy is getting pet and rolling around in the grass. She was just excited over all the attention - multitasking is a gift! As his wife came out to take pictures, his eyes got a little misty. The tree had actually been declared dead the day before and has to be completely taken down. Ahh that's why he was reminiscent!

He actually gave me a hug and thanked me for the picture idea, something he never would have thought of himself according to him. I was happy to help, though really I was just thinking out loud to myself (haha). Regardless I had just made someone's day...and that my friends is one of the best feelings in the world.