Calm amidst the (minor) storm

On Monday I came back from work to find a maintenance crew from my apartment complex in my home. A pipe had burst in the kitchen and my home had flooded. Thankfully, my next door neighbor called for help soon enough (when his own kitchen started flooding as well) so the damage was not as terrible as it could have been. But what followed were 48 hours of chaos. Furniture moved around, carpet ripped up, 24/7 loud dehumidifiers and fans, maintenance people in and out of the home. More than enough to give you a literal headache in addition to the enormous frustration of dealing with this right before a holiday. And yet in the midst of it all, my puppies helped maintain the normalcy of my existence.

Don't get me wrong, Tigger and Julie were distressed by the madness surrounding us. There was a lot more barking and protecting of our home and furniture than on an average day. But every step of the way, my doggies stayed with me, completely willing to ignore the world and focus on what our 'pack' was doing. As soon as the strangers were gone, life went on. Furniture is in a different spot? They sniffed around it a couple of times and started chasing each other in play, actually enjoying the new obstacle course my home had become. Too loud to hang out in the living room? That's ok, we'll camp out with Mom in the bedroom. If I had been unable to stay in my home because of damages (and had no support or resources, as entirely too many people experience), I am completely certain my dogs would have snuggled up against me in my car and spent however many nights necessary that way. As long as we are together.

I was very tempted to give in to my frustration, the terrible timing of this minor disaster, the inconvenience of having to replace so many personal items. But it was basically impossible to do that. Why? Because I had one puppy wildly wagging and giving me her paw as her very polite invitation to play. And another pup who found his favorite toy in the midst of the chaos and brought it over to me so we can engage in the shortest-distance fetch game anyone has ever played - from one end of my bed to the other. So at the end of the day, we curled up together and went to sleep. Knowing everything will be ok as long as we have each other.