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You may not know Sarah Dyer. But it’s likely you are familiar with her company – Chucklehounds! Chucklehounds designs amazing collections of unique and whimsical doggie bowties and collars! In the past, Sarah has graciously offered up fantastic prizes for MDB giveaways and events supporting animal rescue in Montreal. Now, we are proud to share this piece she wrote about her experience in Boston this past week. And how her dog Magnus, helped in the most unexpected way. Thank you Sarah! (And thank you Magnus!)
WHEN WE GO TO THE DOGS, THE DOGS GET GOING
Puppy Love Brings Much Needed Smiles to Boston
by Sarah Dyer
Our dog wears a bow tie. It makes him approachable and lovable and just plain adorable. We bring him just about everywhere we are allowed, and a few where we probably aren’t, but rarely anyone tells us otherwise. I love watching my dog interact with children, and people and other dogs. He has a persona for each and it is really a joy to watch him make people happy. So of course he was with us this weekend in Boston when we went to watch the Marathon. He makes us laugh, he makes us proud. This week has been no exception.
Boston is a strong city. She’s built with some pretty tough stuff. People, buildings, community. It’s one of the things I’ve loved about the city from the moment I met her, and the number one answer when people ask me what I miss most about it. The Village.
We saw amazing things on Monday. First responders are getting their most due for running TOWARD the mess. Immediately. Without hesitation. Amazing. But so did the people. Strangers. Runners. Tired and maybe a little bit off in a runners haze – RIGHT. IN. THERE. It takes a village to make things right and that’s a village. And the dog is part of that village.
For the next two days, I watched people interact with Magnus a little more closely. Getting anywhere took extra time because so many people would stop us, not just the kids – “can I say hi to your dog?” Our hotel was full of people who were glad to see him. Relief. Joy. Happiness.
On Wednesday as we were getting ready for our day, I noticed the dog behind the chair in our hotel room. He had his head on the window sill and was just lying there watching the police activity below. He knew the world wasn’t right. I swear he was trying to develop a plan to fix it.
Wednesday, we walked back with the dog to visit the area. He’s pretty cute, and we get stopped often to let people say hello to him. But this was different. They hugged him. We had a police officer from behind the barricades ask if he could come out and say hi to him. I could see some of the joy that he got from just petting the dog. He told us of sleeping with his cat on his chest when he finally got home Monday night and how it helped. The woman outside of the new Restoration Hardware store stopped us and welcomed our dog inside, “yes, PLEASE, he’s totally welcome”. The faces of college students, and there are LOTS of them in Boston, would light up and they would tell us of their dog at home. It helped. Us and them.
We stopped in a local dog store on Newbury Street for some water for the dog, just blocks from the explosion site and the owner told us that people had been stopping in all day looking for some furry affection. We talked with a set of reporters from Australia who took pictures of the dog for a piece they were doing on “getting back to normal”. I saw today that there are therapy dogs walking around the city. Bravo! This is JUST what the city needs.
“Just the right amount of dumb” the vet says about our labrador. I agree. But here, in this once gorgeous urban downtown section of my hometown, I think that little bit of dumb was just what the world needed. A big, goofy, bow-tie-wearing black lab to bring a smile to the faces of broken hearts, and strong souls. My village isn’t my home anymore, but it’s still my village. And I’m damn proud of my people – and my dog.
