Love me as I am, stinky and all!

As a dog, one of my favorite things to do when I go for walks with Mom is to find the most stinky scents to smell. When I'm done with one smelly spot, I can't wait to discover the next one to sniff at. But be careful! If not practiced with caution, it can become a very obsessive habit -- kinda like browsing through your social media feed :-)

Sometimes, the scent is so deliciously stinky I feel like rolling over the grass to make sure I keep that smell on my body all day long. Fun right? #simplepleasures

Well, maybe for us, pups, it's the most exciting thing to do, but not all humans can seem to find the joy in this. For instance, adapting to my sniffing habits has been a learning process for Mom. And it's taken a lot of effort for her to accept me fully just the way I am. It's easy when you first welcome us as a puppy into your house, but what happens when we start showing our real selves? When we aren't that cute anymore - how can love remain and grow?

For Mom, it was vital to understand why my sniffing habits caused her so much struggle. While doing this, she had to admit to herself that for as long as she remembered, she used to obsessively feel the need for things to be sparkling clean in her house. She couldn't stand the thought of germs, and every time she felt discomfort in her body, she would rush to see a doctor.

So you might ask, how can a germophobe have a dog? It just doesn't make sense, right?

Well, when Mom was five, her body experienced an illness, and from that moment on, she started to develop an unconscious fear of germs. To protect her, my grandparents shielded her from everything doctors believed was the cause of this illness. In fact, she wasn't allowed to have pets inside the house. Her diet was very restricted, and she couldn't run or play like other kids for fear of getting sick.