My Best Friend

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.  1 Thessalonians 5:11

My best friend is a dog.  Her name is Cory and she is 5 going on 6.  Or would that be 35 going on 42?  How many women would like to say that?  “Hello, I am 35, but on my next birthday, I will be 42.”  Not many I expect.  Anyway, Cory is a Chesapeake Bay Retriever which means she looks like a chocolate lab, but with a curly coat.  A lot of people think she is a labradoodle which is an insult to all the Chesapeake Bay Retrievers in her pedigree and sends her breeder into apoplexy.  Apoplexy.  Is that a word people use anymore or is it only something Louisa May Alcott would say?  Anyway, again, Cory is my best friend because she is helping me stick to my new eating plan.  Unlike SOME people who live here, she doesn’t offer to split an order of onion rings with me or eats Twinkie flavored ice cream across from me at the table pointing out all the pieces of cake and swirls of cream.  No, Cory would throw herself on the sacrificial altar and eat the onion rings to keep me from eating them.   Cory watches everything that goes in my mouth and drools on my pant leg to distract me from what I shouldn’t have.  She lets out a high-pitched bark when she thinks I have had enough.  Just a single shriek to tell me to put down my fork.  She knows that any scraps left on my plate have her name on them, and she would prefer to get more than I usually leave.  No seconds for me.  She gets between me and the stove so that the last bit of food goes to her.  It doesn’t matter if it is roasted broccoli, she is always willing to take one for the team.  Cory even views the disgusting banana nut bread made without sugar or gluten as a treat and happily devoured it until I realized that walnuts, even expensive organic walnuts, are toxic to dogs.  Cory is exactly the kind of encourager we all need in our lives.   Someone willing to not only hold us accountable to our plans, but who supports us and joins us in whatever we are doing.  Someone who loves us enough to be excited about the change we hope to see happen.  Someone who helps us envision how great it will be when we succeed.   Someone who isn’t embarrassed to publicly be a cheerleader.  Not to mean I don’t have human best friends, too.  They are the ones who call to say that they are following the same meal plan, send recipes or comment on Facebook.  One of my friends is even considering my offer to send oldest son to live at her house with her husband so she can come here and live with me.  She promises not to buy ice cream at the Dollar Store, but I am not sure she is willing to drool on my leg.