Unicorns

I recently had a job interview.

I know! How could I possibly be thinking about getting another job?

Well, the last year was hard. Very hard. We took in about 50% of our typical revenue, and we tightened our belts quite a bit. In several fits of insecurity, I applied for a few different positions. Clayton is quite capable of running the boarding side of things since we restrain ourselves on the population, and I could always quit training if I had to.

I was excited about one position, managing the logistics for a well respected rescue in Tulsa. I went through two interviews, and was certain that I fit the position perfectly - I was very confident I could do an excellent job there, and it seemed like a much easier job than what I've been doing for the last nine years.

I didn't get the job, though.

Who knows why - it's likely they just thought I was very weird. It's been thirteen years since I last interviewed for a job, after all.

But maybe it was that for some reason I wasn't able to fully expain why it is that I do this - which I feel like I needed to explain to myself as well.

When they asked why I decided to make training dogs my career, I gave a short, simple answer about feeling it was very important to make the community safer by increasing the confidence and competence of families in the area. This is true - that is one of the things that has kept me in the training game this long.

But it's not the most important thing.

I initially was going to become a teacher, first high school, then college, then as both of those venues appeared to be in extreme crisis, I dearly wanted to be able to teach others, as it's one of the most interesting and rewarding things that I've done, starting when I was assisting with teaching martial arts at 15.

But that's not the most important thing either.

The deep reason is that the beauty of dogs touches a chord within me that nothing else does.

My favorite movie as a small child was The Last Unicorn. One of the characters - the antagonist King Haggard, a deeply flawed character - says this about the unicorns:

"I like to watch them. They fill me with joy. . . For nothing makes me happy but their shining and their grace"

I know what that feeling is. I do not hoard them as King Haggard would, because hoarding is about satisfying that craving versus honoring the welfare of the animal.

I tell people that if you take care of the dogs, they will take care of you, and I believe that with every ounce of my being.

Dogs came to me - Mika came to me - right before I entered one of the most difficult phases of my life. I would not have survived without them.

I am unutterably grateful to them.

To this day, there is nothing that brings me such absoute joy than just to watch dogs play.

They are the unicorns to my Molly Grue.