Why did we adopt these dogs again?

My 50 pound high energy Border Collie/Lab mix Maggie has a sore paw. I'm not sure what is up with it because she won't let us look at it. We tried last night, but there was some "teeth baring" and she snapped at Linda when she probed a little too far. So, I resorted to running a couple of inches of warm soapy bath water in our nice clean bathtub for Maggie to stand in so that she could soak her paws. I'll be doing that three times each day until it improves or gets worse. Of course that includes cleaning the tub after each soaking. So, what is that? Probably 20 minutes each time. I'll be investing an hour a day in Maggie's life so that she can recover from a sore paw and avoid an infection. If it gets worse, of course there will be the visit to the vet and the fees. Why am I doing all of this? If I accumulate the time I will be investing this week in taking care of my dogs including feeding, walking, grooming, etc, it will total total 10-15 hours. That is a part time job that is actually costing me money! But... I love it for some reason.

I think the biggest reason is the way my dogs teach me about living in the moment. In a dogs world you have to face every situation as it comes. You have to trust and take action based on your instincts. Dogs seem to have an intense commitment to acting out of instinct. I agree with those who say that humans have lost a lot of our ability to "instinctively" communicate with our world.

I can't be a decent leader to my dogs unless I lead them by instinct. I like what that brings out of me and I enjoy the connection I feel with the world as a result of our friendship.

So, here's to letting "recovering from a sore paw" become a group project when necessary... :)