The Simple Pleasures of a Closed Door

Here's a picture of the two furry members of our family, Boo in front and Sully in back (Brooke is the less furry one in the middle). I had to laugh at them last night, and then I got to wondering how something so simple can make them so happy. Let me explain.

I was reading last night while Brooke was watching TV. I had closed my office door to make it a little quieter. A little while later, Brooke came and opened my office door and let the dogs come in. She said they were both just sitting at the door waiting to come in. When she opened the door, they both ran in and jumped up on my lap as I sat in my favorite reclining reading chair. Brooke talked for a few minutes then closed the door and went back to her TV watching.

What do you think those dogs did not 30 seconds after Brooke left the room? They jumped out of my lap and went to sit by the office door waiting for somebody to open it. I opened the door and they bounded out to go greet Brooke as if they had not seen her in several hours.

And that made me remember my Husky, Mitzi, when I was growing up. We lived in Iowa so houses had basements. Our basement had a large room where we kept the ping pong table. And I can remember, as if it were yesterday, getting my ping pong paddle out and heading toward the basement door steps. Mitizi would jump up, run in circles, wag her tail and get oh so excited about going down those steps and into the ping pong room. I don't know why, other than the simple pleasure of getting to the other side of a closed door. Once inside the room, she would lay down under the table while we played ping pong.

After Dad and I had played several games (usually it was "enough" for him and not enough for me), we started the whole process in reverse. I would walk to the door and Mitzi would get all excited. I'd open the door at the bottom of the steps and she would RUN up the steps and wait at the door up there. I'd open that door and she would bound through all excited about I don't know what.

At our house, when one of us leaves, the dogs sit at the door and wait for us to come home. Yes, they get up and do other things, but as soon as they hear a car pull up, they run back and wait, eagerly looking up at that closed door. And what a joy it is to walk through that door. Two dogs are all excited, jumping up, turning in circles just so glad you walked through that door. Boo in particular gets so excited I've started calling it her "party" whenever somebody comes home.

I'm not sure what it is about the simple pleasures of a closed door, but now that I've noticed the phenomenon, I've started enjoying it myself. Boo is at my feet chewing on a bone right now. I think I'm gonna close my office door just so I can watch her little tail wag 900 miles an hour as I walk back toward the door two minutes later to let her back into the rest of the house.