Welcoming Karma Into The Family

Karma (Sanskrit: कर्म kárma (help·info), kárman-

"act, action, performance"[1];

Pali: kamma) in Indian religions is the concept of "action" or "deed", understood as that which causes the entire cycle of cause and effect (i.e., the cycle called aṃsāra) originating in ancient India and treated in Hindu, Jain, Sikh and Buddhist philosophies.[2].

'Karma' is an Eastern religious concept in contradistinction to 'faith' espoused by Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), which view all human dramas as the will of God as opposed to present - and past - life actions. In Eastern beliefs, the karmic effects of all deeds are viewed as actively shaping past, present, and future experiences. The results or 'fruits' of actions are called karma-phala.[3]

Above you can read the wikipedia definition for "Karma". In our case, Karma is the new dog. She came to our house maybe two months ago. I won't go into the details here, but Terry and I didn't have anything to do with the decision that there will be a dog in our house or the naming process. Despite the circumstances under which she made it in our lives, she is a good dog and whenever she finally gets the "Don't pee or poop in the house!"-rule, she will be a GREAT dog. Of course, she's a mutt... A mix between a lab retriever and a greyhound with the greyhound appearance pushing through mostly. But judge for yourself...

Don't get me wrong, Terry and I love dogs. We both had dogs in the past and know what kind of a responsibility they are. So, when we were presented with our new dog, we both were not happy. It had nothing to do with Karma, since she really is a sweet dog, but with the fact that we got this responsibility delivered without our agreement. If we wanted to have a dog, we would have gotten one... But we wanted to be flexible with our free time activities and be able to just go out of town over the weekend, without having to make arrangements all over the place. Because of that, we decided to try to find a new home for her. The thought of just taking her to the pound didn't sit well with both of us, therefore we asked around if someone wanted a puppy and also put and ad in craig's list.... And nothing happened. Weeks went by and none of our friends, family or co-workers wanting the dog, there was no response to the ad... Until last week.

Sometime last week, I sat in the office in front of the computer checking my e-mails, while Karma was sitting next to me on the floor to keep me company... Finally someone has seen the ad and responded to it, wanted to know, if we still had her. My heart dropped... I looked at the screen, then looked at her... She looked up to me, with her brown eyes, the long eye lashes, her big old floppy ears... Putting her head on my lap... Looking very similar to this:

"CRAP!!!" was my first thought. The ad has been online close to four weeks by then and I really didn't expect a response anymore. I told Terry about it and over the course of a long conversation, we decided to take the bullet and keep Karma along with all the responsibilities that come with a dog... Not looking back anymore at the circumstances under which we gotten here in the first place (this one is very tough for me... I am working on it). Even though she is already in the house for several weeks, I just consider us having a dog, since we made this decision last week. And if there was a piece in my heart left that she didn't win yet before last week, she has it by now... Of course it helps that she made incredible progress when it comes to her house training! :-)

Because we always felt like having her was a temporary situation, we held off on doggy purchases. So last weekend we finally got her a bed and retired the old yoga matt that she used until then. We also set out on a quest to find a used dog house, only to end up building one Sunday night... Well, Terry and kid did the building and I think they did a most fabulous job with it, even if it's not quite done yet. Have a look here...

And that's how Karma entered our family and may it be a good one! :-)