Luca Toni is our Mini Dachshund. He is also the love of our lives. My wife and I love dogs; I love cats too. Luca Toni get his name from the soccer player of the Italian National team. Our love for Luca is great. It may be at the level Cesar Milan, "the dog whisperer," has often criticized. Sorry, Cesar, we don't share your view that loving a dog this much is harmful. In fact, loving a dog is one of the greatest experiences we can have in our lifetimes. The experience of love is essential to our existence. When we introduce this experience to our pets, they benefit in the same ways we do. With the experience of love, we learn to serve and care for others. The service and care we give to others is a transcendental experience that elevates us from our selfish selves to our benevolent selves. We evolve as beings when we serve and care for others.
I know Luca experiences our love through observation. Whenever we return home from being away, even for short absences, he greets us as if we had been gone for days. Because dogs are pack animals they need others to feel safe and secure just like we do. Our family has become the pack that he belongs to, and he knows it. Yes, we have had our problems establishing his place in the pack. With the help of a good trainer, we have learned how to set limits for Luca so that he knows he is not the alpha. Instead, he is a member of our pack. He now knows he has less freedoms than we do, and he reluctantly accepts his role. Like any child, he continually pushes the limits. We hold the responsibility of enforcing them.
Luca has many names. We call him Luca Duke, Bobby Barker (for the excessive barking of his breed), and Dukers. My favorite is the one my wife has coined, "the little shitling." Let me explain. Luca, we have found out, has a neurological disorder. He does not have full control of the back half of his body. When he stands, he wobbles. Sometimes during walks, his legs give out, and he is forced to drag them. The worst aspect is that he doesn't always know that he has to do "business" as we call it. So, he regularly fails to do business where he's supposed to. You gotta take the good with the bad, and we do our best to deal with the situation. After all, we treat him like a family member even though he is a pet. He is like a son to us and a brother to our boys. We have other nicknames for Luca; I'll spare you the rest.
Dachshunds are now my favorite breed. I think of them as a big dog in a little body. They are ferocious despite their stature, and Luca has proven to be cooperative, loyal, and fun. We think he is very handsome and cute. With his white chest and brown markings upon his face and feet, he is very suave looking in his shiny black coat. His big floppy ears and his short stature present his obvious cuteness. As a kid, my family had Great Danes, and our family became partial to big dogs. I never thought I could feel the same way about the smaller breeds. I was wrong. I'd love to see Luca with a Dane as a sibling. We have been tempted to get another dog many times, but we have resisted.
One of the experiences our family values the most has been the relationship that has developed between our autistic nephew, "Micro" and Luca. Micro has loved Luca since the moment the two met. Micro lives in L.A. so he hasn't been able to be with Luca as much as he would like to. As his parents, his teacher, and his fellow students will verify, Micro loves Luca. He talked about Luca all the time. Our family has realized that Micro has benefited a great deal from the relationship. With autism, relationships are challenging because of the anti-social nature of autism. Autistics tend to be self-centered, and Luca draws Micro away from his self and into the relationship. The relationship between Luca and Micro has shown such promise that Micro's parents have rescued a dog from the pound and welcomed "Checks," a Border Collie mix into their home in L.A. So, we and Micro have a new family member. We haven't met Checks yet, but we can't wait to do so. Micro is in love once again, as he should be, as we all should be. My brother-in-law, Mike came up with the name Checks because he says, "It's always nice to come home to "checks." I can't argue that.
I have to mention my brother's dog, Stosh, too. Stosh gets his name from the Polish heritage of my sister-in-law, Kimberly. Micro loves Stosh, the second dog to arrive in our family. During recent family visits around the holidays, the families and the dogs have have reunited in great joy and chaos ( the dogs and the sleeping arrangements). We can't wait to introduce Micro's dog, Checks, to the mix. Great mischief and fun await our next reunion. I am sure Luca, his dog cousins, and Micro will love the chaos more than the rest of us.
Americans love their dogs; our family is no different. Humans and their relationships with animals have long been documented in our public and private histories. This has been my attempt to document ours. May we all live long, be healthy, and prosper.
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