Humans, Dogs, and Happiness

Domesticated animals don't have a choice about where they live, be they dogs, cats, sheep, horses, etc. I think about this issue sometimes with regard to my dog, Logan. His previous people turned him into the Humane Society. I adopted him and took him home to Wilhoit. He had no say in anything that happened to him.

Of course, this is the nature of humans' relationships with other animals. We can't communicate fully. We do what we do. I wonder occasionally, though, if Logan is truly happy here. I think he is. I hope so.

Today was one of those times that I'm sure he's pleased with where he's ended up living. I was sitting outside on the deck reading. Logan was doing his own thing somewhere on the property. I heard barking and looked up to see him running along the fence, paralleling a dog on the other side.

Then a cowboy (an actual one) on horseback rode out of the national forest and down the road. I lost sight of him for a minute or two. He returned, driving three steers ahead of him. He herded them through an opening in the barbed-wire fence back into the national forest. At this point, Logan was beside himself with joy. He got to bark at a dog, cattle, a horse, and a cowboy. Wow!

The cowboy rode back onto the road, dismounted, reattached the barbed-wire fence to close the gap, checked his saddle, and remounted his horse. He and his dog headed down the road. Logan sent them off by racing along the fence, barking and wagging his tail until they were out of sight.