Winter is coming and the kind of love that sometimes makes you doubt for a moment, but never for long.
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by Robin van Leeuwen
Winter is officially still weeks away (December 21 or so) but try to take it seriously when it already feels like you have ended up in a semi-dark fairytale where the cold comes for free. The air is wet, the wind is clearly in the mood, and darkness is falling faster than your motivation to go outside again. Spring? He's in a coma somewhere under a duvet.
And in the middle of all that pre-winter fuss, there is your puppy. That little furry thing that frolics through mud, cold and falling leaves as if he thinks the season is starting just for him. You see it. And you melt. Not by the heater. Because of him.
Anyway, behind that charming front there is always some chaos hidden. Your puppy's toddler phase. That soft bundle of love that turns into a cute storm on four legs and has zero interest in your rules, boundaries, or mental stability.
You are standing outside, in a kind of wet twilight world where the rain comes from the side and the cold convinces you that suffering gives character. You try to get him to pee; he tries to completely reinvent the concept of “being outside”. First he wants to go inside. Then again not. Then eat leaves. Then pee, but only when you have already given up.
Yet, when you finally enter, you're half-frozen, proud as if he's led an expedition, and he snuggles up to you. That small, warm something that hijacks your heart... says without words: Well done man. Mission accomplished. See you in twenty minutes.
And then you feel it again. The kind of love that sometimes makes you doubt your sanity, your patience, those romantic ideas of “puppies are cute”. But never for long. Because one look from that face and everything in you melts harder than snow on a wood stove.
And honestly? I appreciate it. I appreciate the seasons, even this pre-winter thunder. The cold makes the warmth inside more beautiful. The dark makes the moments longer. And that pre-winter stuff that we actually just call autumn, turns every moment with your dog into a small miracle.
See you tomorrow morning then. When he is convinced at 6:00 am that real life starts outside and that the world has to be discovered again, with you involuntarily following him because saying you don't feel like it never works.
But oh, that face, right? And then you're lost again.
