TWA

"Hello, my name is Haley and I’m a tail wagger."

“Hello Haley.”

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The Day of Enlightenment has come. That is what I like to call it. The Day of Enlightenment. (Echo, echo, echo...) If we dogs were allowed to feel guilt, then I might have called it, "The Day I Knew What Guilt Was." But we don't. So I didn't.

My tail. My lovely, waggy, happy, long and strappy tail! The very part of me that I never pay attention to. Unless it has an itch. My tail.

Puppies, we have tails. Short, strong, curly, stubby, lengthy, unforgiving, rudimentary, controlled by emotion…tails. They go and go. They wag and wag. While they go and while they wag, they supposedly are potential trouble causers. At least mine is. Subsequently, wherever I go, or more appropriately, wherever I have been, trouble travels close behind..


My tail has left traces of broken knickknacks, spilled coffee cups and wine glasses. Apparently my tail alone is the reason why there are no cute little things on low tables in our house. Apparently, my tail... is the reason why my Sidekick is quick to pick up glasses as soon as I even THINK of passing near her. Apparently my tail is the reason that my sidekick's nephew, puts up his hands and turns his body away from me when I come near him...(when I am only just so happy to see him)...screaming and laughing "The tail! Owe! Haley's tail got me!"

My entire life, I never paid attention to my tail. Why would I? It’s BEHIND ME!!! Of course there are the times when it itches…(I believe I mentioned this previously, but it's a point worth making twice) I have to bite it to stop the itching. Then there is the consideration tuck that I do when I am hopping up on the couch to sit next to the sidekick and instead of swatting her in the face with it, I turn and tuck it as to not hit her. It’s the one thing I must have learned as a small pup. Who wants to hurt their sidekicks? Not me!

My tail has a little swirl on its’ end.

It is my rudder in the water. It catches burrs in the woods. Ouchiee! But besides all these wonderful qualities, it also (and without my consent by the way) swats young children in the chest, head and arms. Bats adults in the shins and knees. Sends breakable objects flying off of coffee tables and other low lying areas. In one whip of it, it machetes’leaves right off of plants! It's true! My lovely, slightly swirly tipped tail, (that is like no other mind you)..has been causing havoc my entire life! And on a regular basis! Almost weekly! And I didn't know about it!!

Since I was a young puppy, I remember looking at small and cute knickknacky things on the shorter tables. I liked them. One by one, things started moving from my immediate view...i.e. out of line with what would be the direct and immediate path of my tail.


So. The Day of Enlightenment comes. What do I do next? How do I come to terms and go forward knowing full well my tails’ history as well as it’s potential ...AND the possible damage that is to come? Well, come closer puppies... and I will tell you exactly how!




Last week I attended my first TWA meeting. (That’s Tail Waggers Anonymous for all you puppies not in the know.) I attended it to not necessarily correct any future behavior, but more importantly, to come to terms with and forgive the actions of my previous tail past. Ignorance is bliss my puppies. Ignorance is bliss. But now that the bliss is substituted with non-bliss and the ignorance is substituted with knowledge....action must take place on my behalf to right my world somehow.

The meeting was held at the corner of where my fence becomes my neighbors' fence. I had overheard in the past few years, puppies at dog parks, mentioning TWA meetings and how they had helped them restore the confidence they needed to get back their 'puppyness'. That free spirited, blissfull unawareness of any bad or accidental thing that may cross their path...type of feeling.

A mini-Schnauzer and myself constituted the meeting. I cannot say what was discussed. But I can tell you this. After some doggy tears, head hanging and sharing...followed by the sniff and tackle (which I believe is thrown in there just to wrap things up,) I felt considerably more secure about tail - things that have been on my mind lately. (Or has it been a year or a day?...I'm not sure.)

But puppies! I found a bit more peace and security in my puppyness. And that is the most important fact no?

In regards to my tail?

The Day of Enlightenment has come, and gone….in peace. Like my tail, I leave it behind.