Game Changer Dogs - Viva the Evolution

We lost our founding dog Sally recently, which was as big a blow as anyone can experience when saying good-bye to a dear friend. Our nostalgia about our seventeen year friendship with her stirred a project we'd been simmering for years: An image-rich tribute to the human-animal bond and the ways we're transformed by that bond.

The healing, motivation and comfort that dogs offer in exchange for a meal and some ear scratches have been a source of poetry and prose for centuries, and now, as pit bulls secure their rightful place in our culture, their fans seem to have no shortage of gratitudes and stories. In fact, people have been writing to us since our group began to express their amazement at their love for ... a dog.

We feel like therapists at times, taking confessionals from people who can't quite believe how much their lives have changed for the better. "We understand," we reply. The human-animal bond is big stuff. It's been nudging us to evolve our thinking about our planet and its creatures and even each other, and all in the most positive of ways. The newfound interest in dog owner support programs, for example, is born out of our shared love for companion animals with people in communities that may be very different from the ones we grew up in. We thought* we were helping dogs, but really, the dogs have been helping us to become better humans. Clever beasts.

And so, here is the start of our little project: Public confessions of game changing dogs. Many of the entries in this growing collection are heart tuggers, some are funny and a few are quite candid and deeply personal.

Game Changer Dogs

Join Us! This project is for you, and anyone who wants to stamp their story in Cyberspace for all to ponder and enjoy. A few short sentences is plenty and a gorgeous photo tells a thousand words, of course. Thank you for reading and for sharing with your circles.  ---> Submissions