I was unsure of whether I would be able to walk again, let alone feed, bathe, or clothe myself. That’s right, I recently had a sore, swollen knee. Spare me your pity, but monetary contributions are always welcome. It was only through sheer will, grit, determination, and my wife’s nagging that I found I could walk again, if you can call what I do walking. And it was my dog, yes, my dog, that got me to use my treadmill again.
It’s a great treadmill that was sitting idle while I writhed in pain as I ate ice cream and my family urged me to “get off my fat ass and do something for God’s sake” or some encouraging words to that effect. Even the treadmill taunted me regarding my potentially burgeoning weight without activity.
But it wasn’t my family’s “encouragement” that got me to use the treadmill again. It was my faithful dog and her chunky vomit that got me to use the treadmill again. I’ll explain.
My dog always waits on our bed while I shower, so that means once or maybe twice a week she’s up on the bed. Yesterday, she vomited on our bed cover which may or may not be a quilt. I’m not sure. Doesn’t matter. The vomit ran down the end of the quilted bed covering to the floor.
I got the bed covering to the basement, rinsed off the vomit chunks into the sink, and threw it into the wash machine. Then off it went into the dryer, but it’s thick and dense (like me), so it did not dry completely. By then we had some towels that needed drying, and so I used the treadmill.
By morning, it was dry. And that’s how my dog got me to use our treadmill again.
Jim Flanigan Looks at the World 