Photo Credit: Heights Arts
The last two months, perhaps even longer, have been an emotional rough ride for me. In the process of working through my emotions, I seem to have last some of the playfulness, the pet-ness that I once had. In short, I had lost my barking voice, literally.
A while back, I used to be very comfortable acting like a puppy, a true pet for Sir and Miss. I would bark at things, chase toys, even growl at the cats every so often. There was a sense of carefree playfulness in me. Somehow, through all of the emotional growth I have gone through in the past little while (I am not exactly sure how long it has been,) I have not been feeling very pet-like. I stopped barking because it no longer felt natural. In a sense, I guess I had “grown up” from being a noisy, hyper puppy, to being a calm and quiet dog. I am not sure if this truly was the result of emotional growth, or if it was depression from emotional stress; but I did know that it did not really feel comfortable. I missed the playful puppy inside me, and I really wanted to get it back.
Last weekend, I finally let out the first bark in a long time. I think was while Sir was lying on the couch, while Miss sat beside him. I was going back and forth between sucking his cock and resting my head on his chest, when something inside me sparked. I think, at that point, I felt safe and emotionally stable enough to stop worrying about stuff, I was comfortable again and felt a tinge of puppy-ness in me. I barked and could not help but smile, because it felt pretty damn good.
At this point, I am only starting to find that pet-ness in me again. The one bark I let out last weekend felt good, but at the same time, I felt like it was just a scratch into the surface of reclaiming my puppy identity. I also think this is a landmark, a road sign for me, that shows me that I have grown emotionally, gone through all the growing pains 9for now,) and am now finding my balance again.
I think there is something about my puppy identity that makes me feel free, to an extent. I am not sure if “free” is the correct word to describe the feeling, but I know that when my puppy mode is on, something just feels different. Something feels nice. I guess being puppy-like just makes me feel like what I am, a pet. In a way, having a puppy identity puts me in my place in Sir’s and Miss’ life. I am their pet, and acting like a puppy just makes me feel it more.
I don’t quite know what I am trying to get at by writing this, for all I know it’s all coming out like a bunch of jibberish; but I have a feeling, and it’s about barking, puppy-ness, being a pet, and feeling safe and comfortable. That’s really all I have for now. I’ll probably write more on this later.
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I’m a bit late on this, but your observations resonate very much with my experiences, so I just wanted to leave you a short comment. I’m not into pet play, but I’m definitely a dog person, and when I feel good I often communicate with Ludwig using dachshund sounds. I use them when I’m in the mood for relaxing and cuddling and when my mind is at ease. I don’t have to communicate using complex sentences then, simple sounds are everything it takes to explain how I feel and what I want. Usually I’m also in a quite childish and playful mood when behaving like a dachshund. So I can understand very well that you weren’t in the right mood for barking when you had so many different things on your mind, and that your barking voice is coming back now that you are feeling better again.