Prompt Of The Week: And that time I realised that I found a friend for life

@blindDaisy9121

You can try and call shenanigans on this, but there's something you can feel that's like a directed air of kindness.  I know that a lot of gardeners get it, because talking to your plants elicits a response.  You can't hear it, but you can see it in the plants as they grow.  If you do it enough, then you might start to feel it.  It just feels like a tangible gratefulness, and it's strong enough that you would know it's not just your imagination producing it.  I've felt the same thing talking to spiders, and don't judge, but I totally do that.  Sometimes they'll understand that they're welcomed at your home for mutual benefit... but you gotta let them know.  Humans are scary to them... honestly, humans are scarier than any spider, but either way, I find that it's usually better to let them be.  I say usually, some spiders have a bad rep for a good reason.

Anyway, this isn't about plants or spiders really.  This is about a dog.  Dogs are one of the most expressive animals.  They're vocal, and they talk to you with their actions, eyes, posture.  It all has to come from somewhere though.  They can exude emotions too, it's just that you only notice their direct communications.  Well, I rescued a dog this year... she's a brindle staffy mix, definitely with some boxer and rottweiler.   I mostly chose her because of her goofy grin.  We have a great relationship now, she listens really well to me.  Her favorite things include apples, belly rubs, watching Markiplier, doing insane lightspeed parkour, and purposely crop-dusting people.  

But when we first met, she didn't know how to communicate with me in particular, she didn't know what to expect.  I just remember being in the car with her, explaining everything, and she was showing both lighthearted joy and a bit of sass, like "I know how this goes, you'll keep me until you get tired of me.".  But at the end of my first explanation, I told her that "We look out for each other now.".  It was something about that sentence... something she understood very well and needed so badly.  She just looked at me with real expression for the first time, but what I felt was the strongest sort of positive wave like I would feel from an unexpressive lifeform like a plant or spider.  It told me that I'd earned a trust from her on day one that she hadn't given freely in years.  At that time I knew I had a friend for life.

I've lost most of the friends I've had.  It was sometimes my fault, where I said the wrong thing and angered them too much.  Sometimes it was their fault, where they just chose to rip me off or use me.

I have a couple of friends now who may stay friends for the rest of my life.  One was a neighbor of mine twenty years ago.  It started out with me giving him rides when he was too drunk to drive.  We both liked horror movies and other crazy movies.  He moved south nine years ago, but we keep in touch through texts.  He wants to move back here but can't find affordable housing.

The other friend is a guy I knew in high school, but not very well.  I bumped into him every few years or so since then until the reunion four years ago.  After that awful experience, I went to him for support.  He's been good.  We don't hang out together or anything like that, though.

Stuck with me

I've made a few friends over the years

I'm not too popular but you know what they say

Better to have a few gold friends than 1,000 paper ones

And even though they're still with me I know they'll leave someday

And I know I'll find new ones

As friends come and go

But I look in the mirror

Almost disgusted at what I see, yet, I figure,

Why should I think that about him?

He's been terrible to me but I'm still alive

He beats me down but pulls me through the tough times

I want to hate him but I simply can't

So, looking at that face in the mirror

I think I'll try being nice to him for once

Maybe we'll be friends

Because even though he's mean

He's working on it too

And he looks back at me smirking;

You're stuck with me

And I'm stuck with you.

Maybe I don't have to mind it so much.

-L. Cheese