True friendship: so precious. Where we can fully be in the natural state, appreciated for the awareness that we are.

This photo was taken ten years ago, when Emma, our smooth collie, was just ten weeks old. We’d been concerned that our older wolfhound (125 pounds) might play too roughly with her, or not accept her. But here is Dancer–just a week after Emma came home to us–serving as the soft, warm pillow-with-a-heartbeat that this pup, lonely for the puppy-pile of her litter mates, needed.

And how did this huge wolfhound play with a pup one-eighth her size? She lay on the ground so she was just the right height, and gently batted her paws. She allowed Emma to pounce and munch on her–and when they were done playing, she would carefully wash the inside of Emma’s stand up ears: puppy-ecstasy.

May we care for our friends with a similar gentleness of spirit, and fresh, open hearted awareness.

© Skye Blaine, 2011