"Leo! Let's go!"
He would jog to the door, face his body and put his head as close as possible to the door and then look back at me. I would grab his leash and count to 3 to open the door, he runs in a speed of light out of the house till I could barely see him. If I did't follow him, he would run back. Sometimes, I would lock him with his leash to a pole and pretend to leave. He would, then, barf nervously like a mad dog. That's I know how much he loved and needed me, only me :D. In the hottest days of the summer, the activities we did together were water fight and catch, outside of the garage or in the Aubrey Elementary field. He would run for the ball despite the sun's evilness, jog back with the ball, drop it, then go into the shade inside of the garage, lie down, and open his long month wide to let the hot air out of his body. And then same pattern again and again until he got super tired. I would let him rolls his body in the mud in the summer, I accepted the consequence: shower him. I turned on the automatic water spread thing in the front yard. He loved those things. He would try to bite and catch the water. LOL. And then I would have to shower him...... it's the hardest work of having him, but I loved it. Showering him was one of those love-and-hate things to do. If there were dogs out on the field and I didn't want to go with him to play with them because I would be playing basketball, he would "try" to be social: jogged to them and tried to do what they were doing (usually the other dogs ignored him because they were too into their games). However, he was pretty much a social retard in the dogs' world. He didn't know how to play with other dogs, excepts for the 2 neighbours who he grew up with. He, then, ran back to me, leaned his body against my legs and then walked a few steps toward the other dogs and then came back to lean his body against my legs again. That was his way to let me know that he really wanted to play with them but he doesn't know how and I guessed he also wanted me to be there while he was there too. I could see it in his face, he would look confused, haha. I would pat him and say "it's ok, just go baby". That was my way to tell him I want to play my ball and stop bothering me. And then he would go to those dogs again and then find himself lonely because everybody ignored him, HAHAHAHAaa, they actually ignored him most of the times. So he would come back to me and leaned himself on my legs again. After we moved out of the house to Ashley Grove, where there were a small forest that he always wanted to go in. So he would go into the forest when I took him out. However, my kicks were a big consideration of my appearance, therefore, I would NOT go in with him. I would see, only and nothing else, his head sticking out of the trees and flowers and looking at me. I said "no baby. I really don't want to." He would run out and then find something else to do. After like 5 mins or so he did the same thing again, what a smart ass he was. I could NEVER NEVER get enough of him. After school and weekends. He was my weed.
Having Leo, however, was not just being on drugs mentally. Physically too. "Studies have shown that human and animal contact, specifically with people and dogs, almost doubles levels of oxytocin¹ and serotonin²" said Meg Daley Olmert, the author of Made for Each Other: The Biology Behind the Human-Animal Bond. "It is run on the same physiology that allows a mother to recognize her baby as her own and want to pick it up and hold it to protect it. At this point, it appears that our pets are the most powerful releasers of oxytocin in our brains and that could account for the fact that when your pet dies, you feel like a cannonball got fired through you." Moreover, according to what I read from Toronto Star today, a flood of studies showed oxytocin stimulates the cortices that control emotions, quiet fears and can switch off the powerful defence system known as "fight or flight." Interesting facts ai? I post this information up because it attracts my attention today (I love reading newspaper while eating. I'm getting old). I guess this was why my anger management was better during Leo's short 3.5 years and I got less emotional.
¹ Oxytocin is a hormone released by the pituitary gland that causes increased contraction of the uterus during labor and stimulates (like I would know anyways) and stimulates the ejection of milk into the ducts of the breasts (I didn't feel it).
² Serotonin is a compound present in blood platelets and serum that constricts the blood vessels and acts as a neurotransmitter (I don't really know what it means since I never took bio class before).
Here, I post a song that I listened to for weeks after Leo's death. It's good and it's my favourite song by the singer. It's Better In Time by Leona Lewis.
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