If you have ever owned a pet you know that they provide you with unconditional love. They’re always happy to see you, they shower you with love and kisses even though you’ve left them at home all day long or at the dog sitter for weeks because you were on vacation. They make no judgements and hold no grudges, they are simply thrilled beyond belief that you have come home to them once again. That’s also why dogs can, at times be better relievers of stress, tension, anxiety and depression than medication or going to see either a psychologist or a psychiatrist. Why you ask? Simply because they are the only ones on this earth not capable of breaking any confidentiality promises or clauses. Doctors are bound by confidentiality and HIPPA yes, however there are moments when they can and will be compelled to spill your secrets. Not that I’ve got those kinds of secrets to hide, but still, the idea that they will literally never reveal your most inner vulnerabilities is a major plus.

Our girls have helped me weather many storms in their short 2.5 years, not the least of which is what my friend Sherri and I like to call “geo-baching,” that would be the local girl version of saying the act of the military separating you from your husband for more than a year. It’s one thing for a couple to decide to live separately, whether it be separation, divorce, or something else by choice. It is something entirely different when there are no choices in the matter and you go from a team to a one man band in anything and everything, including Murphy’s law that all of the crap your husband is responsible for fixing (the car, the house, the appliances, etc.) can and will break while he’s gone. Military spouses can do anything, because we are left with no choice in the matter. Uncle Sam says jump and all of us are forced to say, “how high?”

There are days of frustration, chaos and even utter hopelessness, but on all of those days the girls have literally put their heads on my shoulder and paws on my lap with the expression that says don’t cry, mama, it’s totally okay, you’re not completely crazy and it’s going to be okay.