The Hokey Pokey

I have always been a music lover. I love to sing and I know the power a song has in lifting our spirit and calming our anxieties. The music I listen to is determined by what type of mood I am in. When I am feeling blue and need to empty myself out, I reach for Fred Hammond and sing along until I have let out all my hurt. Other times, I will blast the old school music station and dance around the house.

It is no secret that I sing to my dogs. For most people, that may sound strange, but to dog lovers, like myself, it is just another thing we do to show our babies how much we love them.

Gidget was the first of all my doggies I have ever sung to. It started when she was sick with Parvo and we thought we were going to lose her. On one of her worst nights, I lay her on my chest and sang every Gospel song I could think of. At times, she would open her eyes and look up at me as if to say, “I like that song mommy”, and at others, she would just close her eyes and whimper. Regardless, I knew it was a comfort to her.

I continued to sing to her on occasion. Usually in the evenings, when we were laying in bed, I would pray and then sing her a song or two. I never really thought anything about it, I just felt she enjoyed it and left it at that. Even now, when we go to bed and after I pray, I will sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star to her until she goes to sleep. Don’t judge me!

Last year when we got Tank, I tried singing to him but he was not interested at all. He is too high strung to sit and listen to me sing. Tank is part Chihuahua so I think he is naturally nervous and has no attention span whatsoever. When he is stressing out, he likes his face rubbed and spoken to. Tank, no doubt, needs a whole lot of gentle words and love…but no songs.

Now Molly, she is a whole different type of dog. She is a very smart girl and extremely demanding when it comes to attention. She does not like to wait for a belly rub and will literally grab your hand to let you know what she wants. She is also very in love with her papa. He belongs to her and she belongs to him. Bottom line. That is a well known fact in our house.

Papa recently started a new job a few weeks ago and his hours are less than ideal for me, but especially for Molly. The first night he was not home at bed time, Molly had a melt down. She ran around the house crying and mooing (her signature cry and the reason her middle name is Moo) in a frenzy looking for her papa. She did not calm down until he came home a few hours later and lay down with her.

Since he began working these odd hours, I have learned to lay down with Molly and the gang until he gets home. Both Molly and Tank will not go to sleep until he gets home, so I talk to Tank and sing to Molly until they are calm enough to either let me sleep or until he gets home. Yes, my babies are spoiled.

I did not know how much power a song has until last night. I was laying in bed with the hounds when Molly reached up with her paw and tapped my mouth. I told her that was not nice and she did it again. Finally she did it a third time and then mooed at the same time. I knew what she wanted. She wanted mama to sing to her. So I grabbed her ear and sang her favorite song…”You put your left ear in, you put your left ear out, you put your left ear in and you shake it all about…you do the hokey pokey and you turn yourself around, that’s what its all about.”

By the time I got to her left paw in, she was snoring. I lay there in awe of how smart Molly is and how much power a simple song, sung with love, has. I looked down at her, and she looked so content. For the first time since papa started this job, she actually slept…we all slept.Who would have thought the Hokey Pokey would have that much power?