Personally, it’s been a tough couple of weeks for Hope. The saving grace through all of it has been spending time with our dogs. Dogs are our happy place.

Specifically – the three sucky things that happened were:

• Just as Hope and Torque were ready to enter the Obedience Competition ring, a smooth collie stuck its nose up Torque’s butt and he consequently lost all focus and attention. This was after driving 90 minutes in driving rain to get to the obedience trial site. 
• Hope was stung on the top of her foot by a yellow jacket wasp as she took out the trash from dog-food-making day. She does not react well to bites/stings.
• And in completely non-dog-related suckitude, the clothes rod in her closet came out of the wall, dumping everything on the floor in a giant heap.

None of these incidents is life-shattering. And Hope is generally a pretty even-keeled person, a glass-half-full kind of woman.

Taken together, they were a bit overwhelming. 

Thank goodness we have dogs!

Nothing soothes the turmoil of sucky days better than some time spent cuddled with your dog. Psychologists break it down into five ways dogs make us feel better: Dogs improve mood, make you feel loved, lower your stress, help you be social, and keep you healthy and fit.

Hope’s Torque is a wonderful happy place ambassador – he loves to hug. And cuddle. When you need to rant, your dog just listens, or even kisses your face. He doesn’t try to “fix it,” or want you to stop talking. He just looks at you with those gorgeous puppy-dog eyes and lets you talk it out. Hope felt so much better. You better believe Torque got extra treats for being such a good therapist.

Torque isn’t very photogenic – dark dogs are very hard to take pictures of. But we think he’s gorgeous, inside and out.