Bark, Bark – This Is My Life and Yours Too: An Uncomplicated Philosophy Tale, Written by a Dog with a Gentle Heart

By Patricia Young

Presented in an atypical way, this is an uncomplicated philosophy fable, written by a dog with a gentle heart and a human voice. As this puppy develops into an older and well-adjusted dog, we find this is remarkably similar to the way in which we too need to grow into confident and effective adults. Our dog tells his story from before his birth and throughout his life until after he dies. While he grows from a puppy to an adult dog, he is helped in his development by the simple philosophical guidance of his owner’s friend.
As his life continues, he experiences many joyful and wonderful times, but also some that are arduous and sorrowful; yet as each year passes, he finds out how to cope with these setbacks more easily. He lets us know how he learns good behaviour and how to live contentedly with his family. He comes to understand the appropriate way of approaching other dogs and other people, and finds that this makes life happier, not just for himself but for those around him.
We come to see that the problems he meets in life are remarkably similar to our own problems, as we too have to learn how to cope with “triumphs and disasters” and need to build up our inner strength and wisdom to do that. Come with him on his life’s journey and realise – perhaps with some astonishment – that this is your personal life journey too.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Austin Macauley Publishers
• Release date: Mar 31, 2021
• ISBN: 9781528993944

Patricia Young

Patricia Young has always been fascinated with how people think, feel and behave. She attended a three-year clinical theology training and later carried out a personality research project involving 3,000 members of Mensa. She is a conference speaker and has given conferences around the country. Both her book, Understanding Your Personality, and her personality questionnaire, developed from the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, have been widely used in education, counselling and medical work. Patricia is a Francophile and enjoys speaking French. She also has an interest in creating Zentangle designs and abstract art.

Book preview

me.

Chapter One

I Slowly Become ‘Me’ and Find My

Forever Home

I am not sure what is happening around me but I am slowly aware of becoming conscious and I feel I am being held in a lovely protected place: I am so comfortable and warm and I have a quiet sense of happiness around me. I have a feeling there are other beings near me, and we are all enfolded together. I am not sure where I am or what else is happening, but I feel I am ‘Me’ and that I am in a soft and yielding space. In spite of not knowing what is surrounding me I feel very safe and cared for. Because of this I do not mind that I am not sure where I am, or quite who I am, or what is happening.

A little later, I am conscious there are other forms around me, it feels like we are all together in this idyllic place. I want this calm feeling of bliss to go on forever. Now it seems we are all starting to grow a little bigger, we huddle together and find we can move around a little less in this comforting space. In a while there is less room for us all, and one of the other beings pushes around until he finds an opening, so he starts to make his way outwards from here. Another being does the same, so although I do not want to leave this lovely atmosphere something makes me want to follow, so I start to push out too.

It is a little difficult, I am having to struggle and struggle, then I quickly pop out and suddenly I am in a much, much bigger place: I have no idea where I am, and I now feel a little frightened and do not know what is going on around me. I know I am being picked up and gently wiped down. A voice tells me I am a boy and I am going to be put near to my mummy so she can look after me. It is only then I realise I have been in my mummy’s tummy all this time, and now I have come out to be with her. Someone puts me near to her soft, warm body, and I quickly find a spot where I drink gorgeous milk from her, it is absolutely yummy.

I hear a voice saying there are six of us, three boys and three girls. I am happy to hear this as it means I have others to be with me. I am told they are my brothers and sisters. This pleases me as I cannot see anything and I do not want to be left alone. I would like to stay with all the others around me, as I feel safe knowing they are there. And my mummy is wonderful, she licks us and cleanses us and knows just when each of us needs this. So I don’t want life to change, as being close to my mummy and the others I feel I am living in a cocoon of happiness. My mummy talks to us and tells us that we will soon be able to see, and we will all grow bigger and will need humans to look after us. She tells us she lives with a lovely family who look after her, there are a man, a woman and a young girl.

I try to understand what she means, as I know these humans are here as they come to see us frequently. They lift us up and stroke us and I hear them talking about us and making sure each of us is all right. I listen to what my mummy tells us about what we will need to learn so we can become confident and mature dogs. She also tells us that she will only be looking after us for a few weeks, as she hopes one day each one of us will be chosen to go and live forever with a kind owner or maybe a family. Then we will need to learn how to behave towards these humans and other dogs we meet. This is what happened to her and she has a very happy life with her family, she loves her family and they all love her a lot too. And she is particularly happy as she has never had puppies before and now, she has the six of us. I find I am not sure about this business of going somewhere else, as I would like to stay with my mummy and these humans here forever.

A bit later, I hear one of the human’s saying that one of us does not seem able to move about much and he is not drinking milk, and I hear another of them saying he is extremely weak. And soon after this, although I cannot see, I am aware he is not with us any longer, and my mummy tells us he has died. She is very, very sad indeed, and so are all of us. I have never felt sad or unhappy before and it is an awful feeling, you try not to feel miserable but you just go on feeling very low. It was my brother who died and I miss him a lot, especially as he has not long been born. So I try to feel more cheerful, but I cannot and my mummy and my other brothers and sisters are feeling very unhappy too.

Then I hear one of the humans talking about there being five of us now, two boys and three girls; I know I am a boy and I now have one brother and three sisters. I love being here with them and my gorgeous mummy. I am growing bigger now and my eyes have opened, so I am able to move around a bit and I start to explore what is around me. A bit later I hear someone say my mummy is getting very tired feeding five of us, so I am now given a little extra food in a small bowl. I really like this, as I feel hungry a lot of the time. I get a lot of attention and feel quite spoilt, the humans stroke me a lot and I love this, though I still feel sad to have lost my brother. And then I hear one of them say that my brother could not breathe properly but he died quite peacefully, so I feel he was not in any pain, and now I am starting to feel less sad and to be thankful it was not me who died.

I am told I am nine weeks old now and now I can see properly and notice things around me. But rather quickly, one of my sisters has disappeared. My mummy tells me they have been specially chosen to go and live with their new families who will care for them and look after them forever. She hopes someone very nice and kind will soon come and choose me and my sister to live with them, so I am thinking I would love to have a family that is my very own. But so far no one has come.

Then one afternoon two people, a man and a lady, come to the house. I wonder why my mummy has been taken into the big room, she tells me it is to show the two people that I will grow even bigger than her. Then my sister and I are taken in too. I can tell these two people are very interested in us, and why not, we are fine-looking puppies now. They are here quite a long time, a lot of talking goes on with the humans, and I am a tiny bit frightened: but both of them seem kind and they stroke us gently. I do wriggle a bit but I like being stroked.

Then there is some talk about choosing either my sister or me. I hear one of the humans say that my sister is more docile and I am more mischievous. The lady says that she would prefer my sister but the man says that he would prefer me, and she says it is only fair that he chooses, as I will belong to him and will be living with him. I listen hard and feel she must be a kind lady to say that. I hope I see her again. I try hard to explore the man’s shoelaces, then I am taken away again, back to my mummy. She explains that in a few days, I will be going to live with this man. But as he and the lady have left I feel a bit confused, as I thought he would take me with him. All night I wonder what is going to happen to me, my tummy is turning over and over, it is not a nice feeling when you do not know what will be happening to you.

Days pass and just when I think I will never see these people again I am taken into the big room, and the man who had previously been to see me is there, but the lady is not. After a lot of talk I am lifted up and given to him, together with my blanket which smells of my doggie family, and some special food for me. I hear them calling him Tony, and saying that I am now ten weeks old. My mummy is looking