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Dogs can teach us a lot about happiness, forgiveness, love and loyalty. I’ve written many times about how much I learn about life and happiness from my mutt Ace. In the book “Bliss to You,” golden retriever Trixie Koontz (not pictured) narrates her steps for finding bliss with some help from her owner Dean Koontz. Trixie says all dogs know how to find happiness, and humans usually need quite a bit of help. I think she has a good point.
Trixie’s steps to bliss include calm, beauty, fun, meaning, others, humility, loss and gratitude. My favorite step is “others” because that is where humans can learn the most from dogs. Our dogs are always there for us, wagging their tails and showing loyalty no matter what. Dogs think of others first and we humans tend to think only of ourselves. And guess who’s happier? Dogs are. According to Trixie, humans are more likely to “think like cat.”
When I started reading “Bliss to You,” I was distracted by Trixie’s grammar. Think, LOL cats, only a step up (dogs are better writers). But shortly after the first chapter I was used to Trixie’s style and found myself laughing at remarks such as “Can’t find really good transitional sentence, so am just moving on …”
Trixie says dogs’ purpose is to give love, teach loyalty, teach courage and to show humans how to have fun. After all, she points out how people have so much in common with dogs such as craving affection, valuing loyalty and getting excited over a Frisbee.
I chose to read the book straight through in about an hour. It would make a nice gift to any dog lover and don’t be surprised if you spot a copy at a friend’s house, especially if she owns a golden retriever.
You could leave a copy of “Bliss” on your coffee table for guests to browse through, or open up any page yourself to get some inspiration from Trixie such as “Dogs love every human face. Humans love only some. Is no ugly face. Only different beauty. Human who never gives you cookie can still be beautiful.”
All author proceeds from the book are donated to Canine Companions for Independence where Trixie worked to assist people with disabilities before she had elbow surgery and became an author instead. Trixie died in 2007, but her wisdom lives on in “Bliss to You.”
(Image from the-golden-retreiver.com)
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September 5th, 2008 at 6:27 am
yes, as Trixie pointed out, dogs are happy wherever they are, as long as they have the basic elements of live, unlike most humans. I was sad to read at the end of your post that Trixie is gone. Sounds like a great read.
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September 5th, 2008 at 6:54 am
Oh, that sounds cool! I’ll have to check it out. The picture that you have used is a great fit.
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September 5th, 2008 at 7:20 am
Oh, I have to get this book! I knew about Koontz’s golden Trixie. He loves goldens and some of his thrillers features them. I read The Darkest Evening of the Year, and was quite taken by it. One of the characters is a wonderful and mysterious golden. You can find my review of it on my other blog, The Dark Phantom Review. Here’s a link, just in case:
http://thedarkphantom.wordpress.com/2008/03/15/the-darkest-evening-of-the-year-by-dean-koontz/
Best,
Mayra
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September 5th, 2008 at 12:17 pm
I love Dean Koontz, but I love Trixie more. I’ve read the book more than once.
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September 5th, 2008 at 7:13 pm
Thanks Mayra, I’ll have to read that book.