Our dog is a Black Lab who lived with my niece and her two other, all very fat and spoiled, indoor dogs.  I told my sis if I adopted Sabrena that she would not be spoiled here.  She would live outside, sleep in the old tack room, romp the woods and and live the life of a country dog. 

She did nothing but howl outside the windows the first two days she was here.  In the middle of the night I'd yell out the bedroom window for her to shut up and she would... for about ten minutes.  It was sometimes a full out wolf-type howl and other times it was pitiful wailing and sometimes a soft mourn-filled wimpering howl.  She finally gave up when she realized I meant business. I'd go out and rub and praise her anytime she wasn't howling, which was seldom. I'm sure the neighbors loved us.

She got over it and learned to adjust.  We've had her a couple of years now and she is a good dog.  Pretty smart, stays real close to home, and very friendly.

We have had 3 weeks of unusually cold weather with lots of snow that doesn't melt.  That doen't happen around here.  We get snow.  It's pretty for a day or two then turns to slush.  But this!  Snow then snow then more snow and winds and drifts and dangerously cold temps over and over!

So, of course, we've been letting Brena in the house at night and even in the day when it is "dangerously cold".  Does she slip in and quietly lay on the blanket I've laid out for her?  No, no.  She tromps right for the bedrooms and jumps up on a bed!  We heat with wood, so can't really close the bedroom doors at night or we'll freeze.  The boys are tolerant but don't like a heavy lump on their legs.  Zeke took a photo of her sleeping under the covers on Bo's bed with her head right on his pillow!  He thougth it was hilarious.  Last night I woke to heavy panting in my ear, sat up and screamed.  She busted down the stairs so fast it took me a second to realize what had happened.  Was she patiently waiting by the side of the bed for me to invite her up?

When the sun is out and it is above 10° I've been putting her out, she is a Lab.  Don't they swim to retrieve ducks in frigid lakes?  She has reverted to her old self by now and sits on the deck and howls, peeking in with those pitifully sad eyes.

I think about the nice pile of straw and pine duff, so soft, she has out there in the tack house.  With double walls and a windbreak, too.  It can't be that cold in there.  The there's the old chicken coop which also has nice soft bedding and the playhouse out there has a carpeted floor.  But she would prefer to sit on the deck, in the wind and the cold and lament her miserable fate.

I think sometimes we are like that.  We have a pretty good life and all that we need but we start looking in the windows of people who have a more comfortable set up and suddenly our life doesn't seem so good anymore.  We want more.  Maybe we want someone to give it to us or maybe we will do whatever we can to get it, including knocking over a couple of folks who are standing in the door.

I'm thinking that true happiness is being statisfied with life right here, right now.  That doesn't mean that I we shouldn't strive to be better or not accept a bigger and better thing when it comes our way... but just appreciate what is.  Look at what we do have.

Blessings!