Embrace Your Inner Doberman and Other Life Lessons from a Tiny Dog by Sonia G. Medeiros

Welcome back to Life List Friday! I’m hosting the fabulous Sonia Medeiros and her cutie pie dog, Katara. When you’re finished oohing and cooing over them, I hope you’ll come see me over at David Walker’s place where I’m discussing Personal Mantras? (I think you’ll like mine!)

Take it away, Sonia….

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Embrace Your Inner Doberman and Other Life Lessons from a Tiny Dog
by Sonia G Medeiros

This is Katara.

Katara at approx 6 months and full cuteness capacity.

She’s half chihuahua. We have no idea what the other half might be, though we’re pretty sure there’s at least a little alien in the mix.

She stands 8.5 inches high, is 12 inches around the deepest part of her chest and 23 inches long. About a quarter of that lenth is tail.

And yes, she is named after the female protagonist in Avatar: The Last Airbender. The animated series, not the movie.

Although she’s closer in size to a guinea pig than a full-grown doberman, she doesn’t let that stand in the way of taking care of her doggish duties. Guarding the property and house from burglars and meter readers. Terrifying birds that have the nerve to land on her grass. And keeping the cats in line.

When faced with a challenge to her dogly authority or dignity, this tiny dog morphs from floppy-eared cutie to pint-sized Cujo.

Hell hath no fury like a part alien, half chihuahua who spots a bird on her lawn.

She then proceeds to bark and snarl until said threat backs down. Grown men and large dogs have been known to back off with undignified speed when presented with her ferocity.

I can’t help but admire her. She learns from each encounter, adapting her next response accordingly. Should the challenge prove too much, she quickly executes a strategic withdrawal and regroups for the next go around. And no matter how many challenges might get the better of her, she never wastes time beating herself up over her failures but prepares to face the next with undiminished enthusiasm.

While our challenges rarely involve impudent birds and sinister meter readers and probably would not benefit from brute force barkage, we certainly could stand to approach each and every challenge with the kind of giant courage and boundless enthusiasm this tiny dog displays.

Never mind the nasty whispers of our inner critics and other naysayers, we could throw ourselves in each challenge. And, if we should fail, we could pull back, gather our strength, sort out what we’ve learned and try again.

And again.

And again.

As many times as it takes.

Maybe it doesn’t matter if we ultimately succeed or fail. Maybe it only matters that we harness our inner doberman and keep trying.

What about you? How do you face challenges? What life lessons have your pets taught you?

This is a blog hop, people!
Click on any of us to the right under Life List Club if you want a fun Friday tour. 🙂

Sonia G Medeiros is a writer of fantasy, science fiction, and horror. She’s the author of more than a dozen short stories and flash fiction pieces, blogs at WordPress, and is working on her first novel, a dark fantasy. When she’s not wandering along the tangled paths of her wild imagination, she wrangles home life with one fabulous husband, two amazing, homeschooled children, a part-alien half-chihuahua and two cats who battle each other for world domination.