National Dog Day: How My Dog Helped Us Find a Sense of Community

Everyone knows moving can be hard, whether it’s across the street, country or internationally. On this National Dog Day, I am celebrating my dog, Thor, for helping my husband and me adjust to moving to our first home.

As many millennials know, it’s difficult to near impossible to find a first home these days. When my husband Brad and I finally did, we were excited to find an affordable home in a cul-de-sac community reminiscent of one of my guilty pleasures, Hallmark Christmas movies. Moving in and making the home our own was the easy part. Getting to know our neighbors was a bit harder.

There are many children in the community, and we don’t have any yet, so it wasn’t like we could connect with neighbors based on us having little ones at home. Well, actually, we do have a “little one” of the canine variety. Instead of meeting neighbors based on our children being in the same school district, our bat-eared, googly-eyed, smiley Frenchie Thor trotted out of our garage the second day we moved in.

Thor is almost 2 years old, and in the short time we’ve had him, he made himself part of a group of men who played poker Wednesday nights in our old apartment building (he would grab a bite of hot dog or a pizza crust as he passed through). His big personality has allowed us to stay in touch with three of his littermate brothers, who are all as equally funny and mischievous. His social butterfly personality truly shined that day he trotted out of our garage though.

He met all the children in our cul-de-sac, play bowing, wiggling his bottom, and panting with excitement. You could tell in his eyes how excited he was the evening they let him play “outfielder” in their pick-up baseball game, even though we all knew he’d run away with the ball. He enjoyed a pup cup from the ice cream truck that drove through the neighborhood, until he promptly threw it up in a neighbor’s front lawn (#Frenchieproblems).

Because of Thor, we have gotten to know our entire street. Because of Thor, we were able to cultivate a sense of community. Thor has no qualms about approaching new people, introducing himself, and being true to his personality—I’ll put it this way, he has the word “exuberant” at the top of his chart at his veterinary office.

On this National Dog Day, let’s thank our dogs for all that they give us, whether it’s companionship when we’re feeling lonely, unconditional love, or in Thor’s case, a sense of community.

Cheers to our furry friends!

tagsdogdogsnational dog day