WE’RE ALL AFRAID OF SOMETHING or LOVE ON VALENTINE’S DAY AND EVER AFTER

In California, we live in a very small house with a tiny little old-fashioned furnace attached to the wall. The furnace makes terrible clanging noises. Clang-clang! I shiver and shake and run to your side of the bed. One night, you wrapped me in a big towel and lifted me up into bed with you. I could still hear the bang-clanging, but it felt better to be close to you where I could hear your heart-beat. Two heart-beats are better than one. That’s why Valentine’s Day is important. Most animals want more than one heart-beat to hear. If they don’t have a heart, heaven helps them find another way to love.

I am also a little bit afraid of the rain. Lightning might follow. I am great-big afraid of lightning. It is very loud. Since I was born to take care of you, you must take care of me too. If lightning sounds loud to you, remember it’s almost three times louder to me. And fireworks? Oh, dog. I have a lot of work to do to keep track of all the noises that could harm you.

Working so hard makes me tired. I sleep a lot so I can be ready to keep us safe.

Thank you for finding another way to make it warm inside our little California house. You shut off the furnace and found big towers of heat to plug into the wall. I am a happier dog. When we came home to Minnesota, there was a lot of noise one night after people jumped into the icy lake for something called the Polar Plunge…FIREWORKS!! We ran home and I hid in the back of my kennel. You turned on Chopin and then Bach—loud. Thank you for protecting me. I try to protect you too.

Oliver’s Advice: Take care of each other. We are all afraid of something and must protect those we love from harm—real or imagined.