{"id":270,"date":"2018-02-14T22:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-02-15T03:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lorettaschoen.com\/v3\/?p=270"},"modified":"2018-05-01T16:32:41","modified_gmt":"2018-05-01T21:32:41","slug":"living-in-the-state-of-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lorettaschoen.com\/v3\/2018\/published-stories\/270\/living-in-the-state-of-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Living in the State of Joy"},"content":{"rendered":"<blockquote><p><em>The average dog has one request to all humankind.\u00a0 Love me.\u00a0 \u2013 Helen Exley<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Tara was the family dog during my childhood.\u00a0 We lived in Huntington, Long Island in New York.\u00a0 It was the suburbs and a time when kids and dogs ran freely in the neighborhood.\u00a0 There was no fear of abduction or leash laws.\u00a0 Tara was my brother Ricky\u2019s dog.\u00a0 She would walk Ricky to the bus stop every school morning and be there when the bus dropped him back off.\u00a0 During school hours, she would rally her dog friends to her yard where they would play with twigs, logs, rocks and occasionally my mother\u2019s freshly cleaned laundry hanging on the line.\u00a0 My mother used to lament that she did not know why Tara\u2019s friends always had to play in our yard.\u00a0 It was an idyllic time and place for Tara but that was all about to change.<\/p>\n<p>We were moving to Italy so my parents could launch a business.\u00a0 Taking a dog overseas required a lot of paperwork, and in addition, we would be living in a small apartment where she would not have the same freedom she was used to.\u00a0 My mother decided that it was best for her to find a new home. \u00a0We kids were devastated.<\/p>\n<p>Tara must have sensed the change in the household for she began haunting my mother day and night.\u00a0 Literally, she sat beside my mother\u2019s beside at night with her head on the mattress just staring at her while she slept.\u00a0 My mother found that sleeping with Tara staring at her made her feel so guilty that she went to talk to the veterinarian about the situation.\u00a0 He explained that Tara was part black Lab and part German Shepherd and as such considered herself very much a part of the family.\u00a0 He stated that he felt Tara would find it very difficult to adjust to a new family and would have a better chance of adjusting to a new environment.\u00a0 Mom came home that night and announced that Tara would be getting the much-dreaded shots just like we were in order to travel overseas.\u00a0 There was a unanimous \u201cHurrah!\u201d\u00a0 I think Tara knew she was going to Italy too, because after that night she resumed her sleeping spot at the beginning of the hallway instead of beside my mother\u2019s bed.<\/p>\n<p>Tara was remarkable.\u00a0 During the first two months in Italy, my parents, who grew up in Italy, took us three kids touring the country.\u00a0 Tara, or course, came along.\u00a0 She went on a gondola ride through the waterways of Venice, spent New Year\u2019s Eve on the Isle of Capri and rode through the mountains of Northern Italy.\u00a0 She adjusted to apartment living and being walked on a leash instead of freely exploring her new neighborhood.\u00a0 She became my confidant and my ever present friend during the summer months when we lived in an area where there weren\u2019t many children my own age.\u00a0 I would read Nancy Drew books to her and she always appeared to be listening.\u00a0 I would dress her up in whatever I happened to think was the rage, and tell her all of my adolescent problems.\u00a0 She often went to work with my parents and was the guard dog for the business.<\/p>\n<p>After my father passed away, we returned to America where my brother was to attend Fordham University.\u00a0 He insisted on taking Tara with him, and against my mother\u2019s better judgment, she let him.\u00a0 Tara became a regular at his classes.\u00a0 One day during a particularly long and boring lecture, Tara stood up from beside my brother\u2019s chair, loudly yawned and stretched.\u00a0 The professor stopped in mid-sentence, looked at Tara, and looked at my brother.\u00a0 My brother thought that he would surely be expelled.\u00a0 The professor promptly dismissed the class because Tara said it was enough.<\/p>\n<p>When my brother got a job selling cars, Tara learned to stay on the car lot, in his office, or sleep in his car.\u00a0 When it was hot, she taught herself to use her paw to roll down the windows.\u00a0 Tara even had a say in my brother\u2019s love life.\u00a0 Since Tara was always with him, it seemed only appropriate that she would go on his dates.\u00a0 Tara did not always like the girls he dated and had no problem letting him know her opinion.\u00a0 My brother was so used to having Tara with him, that he did not always remember to introduce Tara to his dates when they got in the car.\u00a0 Imagine their surprise as my brother held the passenger door open for them to get in, then closed it and walked around to the driver\u2019s side, only to have this large black Lab rise up and poke her head over the front seat to inspect them.\u00a0 To Tara, it was not important where she lived.\u00a0 It only mattered who she lived with.\u00a0 Tara adapted and adjusted to her surrounding, loving each day wherever it may have been as long as it was with the people she loved the most \u2013 her family.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The average dog has one request to all humankind.\u00a0 Love me.\u00a0 \u2013 Helen Exley Tara was the family dog during my childhood.\u00a0 We lived in Huntington, Long Island in New York.\u00a0 It was the suburbs and a time when kids and dogs ran freely in the neighborhood.\u00a0 There was no fear of abduction or leash 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