What My DOG HAS TAUGHT ME.

Trudy, is my rescue dog of several years now, a black Aust. Shepherd/Lab mix that resembles a large Border Collie and with all the same brain matter.  She is WAY too smart.
  Every meal when I put her food into her bowl she looks into my soul with her warm brown loving eyes and then whomps me with her tongue across my arm.  She has never missed doing this.  Always I tell her "You are welcome" and only then does she put her head down to eat.  I feel a sense of JOY because of her gratitude.  We can't experience joy without gratitude coming before it and knowing what we are grateful for.  Never have I met or talked with a single person with the capacity to really experience joy who does not also actively practice gratitude.  The owner of this painting is such a person.