Our memory bank

Memories

A couple of weeks ago I jumped out of bed, hearing the familiar heaving sound.  I shouted "Tilley, Tilley;" and ran for the sliding door.  Of course it wasn't Tilley it was Elsa and I was aware of this by the time I was opening the door.  Standing outside with Elsa I pondered how our brain works.  This has happened before; calling out the wrong dog name.  But on this night it was a memory recall, not simple confusion.  

Tilley use to vomit quite a bit as she got older.  We lost her to spleen cancer so I assume that was the cause of the vomiting.  Having raced to the door so often with her in the middle of the night; my brain recalled an embedded memory.  Elsa very rarely vomits; typically if a piece of food or bone is not digesting it comes out. 

When Luke grew old I often called him Clyde.  Clyde was the man in my life before Luke and my most recent memories of him were of when he was old.  So when Luke entered the "old dog" stage he was often called Clyde.  Not on purpose of course; it was my brain pulling out memories that had been stored away.  I often thought of Clyde in Luke's senior years.  

 When our brain pulls out memories like this; it gives us time to stop and think, remember.  I love when I have downtime to think about those in the past.  The dogs who have paved the road of who we are as canine guardians today.  If it were not for all those amazing dogs and the mistakes made with them, I would not be who I am right now.  

The brain is an amazing thing.  I often cannot recall a memory file from the past that I want.  Trying as hard as I cannot I cannot remember; but then sometimes it just knows when to pull up an old memory for us.  Time to ponder.