What does love look like?
A dozen roses? A box of chocolates? Diamonds?
Maybe.
But I think it can also look a bit….furrier. Maybe slobbery. And it barks, or purrs. Or both. And maybe it covers your clothing in a never ending supply of hair.
What does love feel like?
Romance? Butterflies? Or is it maybe a little deeper than that?
Commitment. Devotion. Loyalty. Unbridled joy. Unwavering support, even in the darkest of times.
These deeper aspects of love don’t just come from human partners or family. Sometimes this love comes in the form of a wagging tail and incessant, sloppy wet kisses. Sometimes it comes in the form of tiny, pokey little paws “making biscuits” on your belly at 2am. Sometimes it comes in the form of a quiet, gentle, velvety head, patiently resting on your lap, catching your tears in its fur, sitting with you through the pain of life.
Sometimes this love is an explosion of deafening barks out of a tiny wiggly body- obnoxious, yes, but the proof of enormous, uncontainable, loud love, spilling out.
Sometimes this love shows itself even more subtly. It never says a word, but never leaves your side. Through all the laughter, sorrow, anger, and boredom, this quiet love stands loyally at your right hand until it can stand no more.
Valentine’s Day is devoted to human love. But we with furry family members know that in our pet’s world, every day is “love day.” Every single day of a pet’s life is devoted to loving its human (yes, even for cats!) We humans can barely manage to remember to celebrate human love one day out of the year. For our pets, it is Valentine’s Day all year round.
Humans, evolved though we may be, struggle with mastering true, pure, unconditional love. For the experts on this, we must look to our pets. From the day they enter our home until the day we must say goodbye, they are the most perfect example of unwavering, immeasurable love.
Sometimes it takes losing them for us to truly understand.
On Valentines Day, we’re surrounded by pink and red and roses and chocolate and mushy human love. But each and every day, though we notice it or not, we’re surrounded by the deep, true, perfect love of our most loyal family members.
So, the next time you brush the pet hair from your clothing, or wipe the sloppy kiss off your face, or hear the thump of a happy tail, or are awakened at midnight by a loud purr in your face, take a moment to feel, to cherish, and to give thanks for that profound, powerful, perfect unconditional love.