Everyone talks of reincarnation, afterlife or what they want to be if they were able to come back to this earth as something other than themselves.  People usually have their reasons for whom and what they would want to be, and most pick a specific species of animal for some reason.

I have always said if I could come back as a woman, but know what I knew being a man in my past life, I could be the youngest and first Female President or why even stoop so low as only being president, I’d just rule the entire world with my Woman Powers.

Then I started thinking about dogs; dogs have it made.  They are completely care free, happy eating anything you give them and not too picky on where or when they sleep.  Not only are they not picky on where they sleep but one of my good friends pointed out that their not very choosy of whom they sleep with.  I guess it’s easy to say that Dogs are bi-sexual; never had I thought of this before, but now that I think about it, it’s obvious.  If they cant find a good mate to hump on, than your leg will have to do.  One of my previous dogs I owned, would hump anything that moved.  Watch out if it saw me wearing my favorite pair of slippers, I guess they were her favorite pair too!?!

On our last trip to the tropics, I noticed the Island Dogs and how carefree they were. Heck, they made our American dogs look uptight and snobbish if that’s even possible. They never came running up to you, they never jumped up on you all excited and I don’t think I ever heard one of them bark, unless they were playing with the chickens that wander the streets and beaches, and that usually made me laugh really hard because it scared the shit out of the chickens.

Now these dogs were a mix of all sorts of various breeds and like normal dogs they all had their own personalities. If you ever go to the Virgin Islands, the Locals all tell you that you need to “Slow Down Mon, you’re on Island Time now”. These dogs lived that motto also.  None of them were in a hurry to do anything, not like my dogs at home that always seem to be up to some sort of trouble.  No, these dogs just lounged on the beach basking in the sun, when it got too hot; they went into the ocean to cool off.  A quick roll in the sand and a few rubs from some passing tourists and it was back to the shade of a tree or under somebody’s beach chair to sleep away the afternoon.

I spotted one that looked like a miniature lab but had the face of a pug?  There was another one that looked like a mix of about five different breeds all mixed into one.  I got to thinking of the lifestyle these dogs lived and became extremely jealous. There are no boundaries, no leashes, and really no rules.

While traveling through Baja Mexico, our own dogs were the happiest they’ve ever been with the miles of empty beaches they could run up and down every day. Their coats were shiny and soft with all the fresh crab they were eating during these walks and I think our big dog Luca has been in a depression since leaving.

Cindy and I were staying in this little bungalow for a few nights on the island of St. Thomas. Now call her crazy, but she was missing our dogs something awful while on this trip, so when one of the neighboring dogs wandered into our living room one afternoon, Cindy adopted it, fed it and as I come back from a swim in the pool, it’s lying in our bed snoring away. The caretaker apologized when she saw it hanging around our front door trying to get it to scurry off with her broom. Cindy ran over and gave the dog a big hug telling the old woman it wasn’t bothering us and explained that it was filling the void of being away from our own dogs.

Something tells me this dog had learned this trick over years of visitors petting, feeding and loving it and Cindy had fallen right into its trap.

When I get reincarnated as a dog, I want to lounge on some tropical island, walk up and down the beach all afternoon getting belly rub after belly rub from cute girls, greeting the guys that are pulling up to the dock with a friendly tail wag, then throwing out a friendly bark at the chickens wandering around on the beach.  Not a care in the world, except trying to coax some food from the guys eating by the beer stand.  This is my idea of living the good life.

In reality I want to live this life as a human, but something tells me I’d only last a week before someone would escort me off the island, I guess I’m not cute and cuddly enough to beg for belly rubs and free burgers from cute girls all day.

The only thing these dogs had to worry about was to get out of the road, which a few of them looked like they hadn’t learned that simple rule just yet.  More than one had a limb broken, but it didn’t slow them down. “No worries Mon’, you’re on Island time”.

While pulling into Jost Van Dyke, this cute little fella came sprinting down the dock to greet us, someone had forgotten to tell him that one of his back legs was broken.  Not a care in the world, a broken leg couldn’t slow this little guy down; tail wagging and happy as a clam to see new people, get a few rub-downs out of the deal and he was off to Foxy’s with us to get some drinks.

Notice the back broken leg of this dog that met our boat at the dock? He didn’t and it never slowed him down a bit

Yeah, if I had a choice to get reincarnated, I want to be a Rasta Dog on one of the tropical islands, preferably one that has a hamburger stand right on the beach.  This will insure I’m fed well.  I can’t think of anything wrong with having to live my life with a little sand between my paws and free beer because the tourists think it’s cute that I can drink out of a bottle.

And what could be wrong with Doggystyle for life???