Haru, the Unofficial Therapy Dog
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Sarah calls me a therapy dog, and I do my best to live up to that.
Every morning I look forward to Sarah coming into the courtyard to give me my breakfast. Sometimes she sleeps in and I start howling in order to wake her up. As soon as I can see her through the windows in the hallway lining the courtyard, I run towards her as quickly as I can.
She comes into the courtyard to pat me before bringing my breakfast. She says, “Good morning,” and I say, “Nice to see you too,” which Sarah thinks is crooning. We have a back and forth conversation, although Sarah hears things differently.
After brekkie, I see her bringing the lead towards me and I start cheering, “Yes, yes!”, which Sarah hears as howling. My morning walk is even more exciting than brekkie.
Sarah likes to keep me happy, so she walks me for about three miles along the beach every morning. If it weren’t for me, Sarah would not get her morning walks. She would take her time drinking coffee and chat to her friends on the phone. It makes me so proud that I play a role in keeping her on the fit side.
Sarah attaches my lead and ushers me out of the back gate with two balls in her hand. My mouth is already drooling at the thought of playing with them. She leads me out to the street, crosses two roads, and takes me to the top of the stairs leading down to the beach.
In summer dogs can walk off-leash before 8 a.m., so the beach is often crowded with so many of our friends. Once she has checked that the stairs are clear, she unleashes me.
I dash down to the beach and wait. She throws the ball and I run and catch it. Once I have the ball in my mouth, I won’t let go of it. The ball’s mine now, so I don’t want anyone else to have it, but I still want to play catch. Luckily, Sarah knows me well.
She walks carefully down the stairs, and I have to wait for her to get down to the beach. Sometimes I wonder why she doesn’t rush down like I do, but I guess that’s just her way.
Once she is on the beach she throws the second ball as far as she can, which isn’t very far compared to the other dog owners. I run towards the ball and stand guard over it, crouching with my forelegs stretched on the sand, moving my eyes in rapid succession from the ball to Sarah, until she comes and picks it up. We do this over and over, and I kick up sand everywhere.
Maybe I look a little silly, but I don’t care. I never hear Sarah laugh so hard as when we’re at the beach.
The other dog owners look at Sarah and ask her why she has two balls. It makes complete sense to me: I get to have twice as much fun!
Sometimes Sarah lets me walk out of the back gate on my own before she puts on my leash. I just make a run for the beach. I know the path, and cross the road in exactly the same places.
From things I’ve overheard Sarah say, I guess she should be annoyed with herself for letting me go, or worried that I might be hit by a car, but instead she is overcome with laughter.
I think she is proud that I can think for myself rather than being slavishly obedient.
One of the roads is a pedestrian crossing where the cars stop for me every single time. Sarah tries to run to catch me, but she isn’t very good at running. Maybe she just needs more practice.
No-one has ever trained me but I’ve gotten pretty good at reading Sarah and try to please her most of the time. I think the reason she thinks of me as a therapy dog is that I make her laugh a lot every morning during our walk. Also many other dog owners greet and talk to her because I attract a lot of attention, which makes her morning even brighter.
When Sarah is with me, she always has a spring in her step; that’s one of the reasons I insist on having her walk me morning and evening, and sometimes in the middle of the day too!
Looking for more stories like this one? Try these:
- Squirrel – Animal Stories
- My Favorite Things: Black Cats – Pets
- We Did It! – Uplifting Story
- The Yellow Labrador Retriever – Dog Stories
- The Mouse is Toast, a Mid-century Tale – Animal Humor
Meredith Anne Stephens
Meredith Stephens is an applied linguist from South Australia. Her work has appeared in Agape Review, Blue Mountain Review, All Your Stories, The Font- A Literary Journal for Language Teachers, The Muse, and Coin-Operated Press. In 2022, with Yudai Aoki, she won the Michelle Steele Best of JALT Award for Extensive Reading. In June 2024, her stories were selected as the Editor's Choice for All Your Stories.
