Pacing yourself: dogs or taking care of princess Nina

The other day I read in the newspaper that people who have dogs live longer and lead happier lives. That is something I can certainly understand. Personally I owned a dog only once in my life. When I was growing up I had a lovely mut called Timmy who was the best dog in the world to me.

The last couple of years I have been very fortunate to live close to friends who own a little King Charles Cavalier. She is called Nina, also anwsers to Pien and is a princess. I sometimes pick her up in the daytime to spend time at my house and on occassion she comes to stay for a few days. The princess has her own chair in my room and nobody must dare to sit on this royal seat. If a mere mortal is stupid enough to try this a staring match is the result together with attempts to weary the mortal until it will give in. Those tactics are jumping on top of the person, more staring, trying to lick your face and jumping off again within minutes only to repeat the whole process. How can that not bring a smile to your face?

Now dogs pick up on their person's moods pretty well. They will be there to comfort you when you need it. You will get your excersise because they have to go out several times a day and no the garden is not good enough for a princess [except when it rains, royalty does not like to get wet]

Nina picking up on stress means that she will be in my face on days that she thinks I am working too much. She will put two paws on my chair and demand attention instead. If the attention is not forthcoming, princess Nina will try to climb onto the laptop. No simply does not excist in the royal vocabulary. by this time I am laughing so hard that my stress is much less already and I then take time out to play with her. Oh yes, she has her own toys at my place too.
After play or a walk I notice that I have fresh energy and often new perspectives to get back to work and in fact I do get more done this way.

I can recommend this stress reducing method to everyone. You get a great deal of love and trust in return.

[one of my favorite you tube videos about another cavalier king charles called Winston]