Magic Miracle Box

I rode the elevator today with a neighbor and his dog. Being on empathic overdrive as usual, my mind's eyes were looking at the world through that dog's eyes and imagining what an elevator ride must look like to him. Imagine this: You walk into the closet-sized box, turn around, look out through the box opening at the view from there, the sliding door closes, your person touches the wall of the box and a little light comes on, there's a sense of motion and vibration, and a few seconds later, the sliding door opens, and abra cadabra, you're in a whole different place with all new sights, sounds, and most importantly, smells. The elevator is a magic box. A teleportation miracle really.

A couple of months ago, two of my friends were playing around with classifying all the people they knew as either dogs or cats. Me? They decided I was a dog. When I heard this, I was struck with two reactions:
1. Duh.
2. But then...hey wait a second. I'm way more complex than a dog. I mean, this one time, at new age hippie pagan camp, my crunchy friend did my animal totem reading, and she said my top two animals are turtle and squirrel. Hmmm, if you combined those two animals into one, it'd be called a squirtle. Which, admittedly, sounds like something someone with bladder-control problems might do when she laughs too hard or sneezes. Maybe being classified as a dog isn't so bad after all.

Wait—how'd I get so sidetracked?

Anyway, at first I was a little stubbornly indignant about being reduced to the label of dog. But after carefully considering some of the more endearing characteristics of dogs, I've repaired my cracked self-esteem shell and decided that maybe, just maybe, I am a lot like a dog. Like, I always want to be close to and take care of my people when they're sad or sick. I really love to go for walks (friends have to be careful to actually take me for a walk whenever they say the word w-a-l-k—I learned what that spells last week). I don't care whether my people are cool or glamorous—I look right through their appearance and instead feel how good and warm their hearts are. I don't take much of anything for granted, and I'm always grateful when people love me. And I also think that elevators are magic miracle boxes.