“Some wounds don’t need fixing — they need naming.

And the courage to carry them with compassion.”
— Murray M. Fuhrer

When I was a kid on the farm, I had a dog named Rex. He wasn’t much of a cattle dog, but he was my friend. We were inseparable—wandering the fields, exploring trails, and staying close in that way only a boy and his dog can. To me, he was everything a dog should be. To my father, he was a problem.

My dad believed that a dog on the farm should earn its keep. A dog wasn’t a pet — it was a tool, like a pitchfork or a gate. However, Rex didn’t behave like a tool. He didn’t obey my father.
He slinked around him, barked at him, and even nipped occasionally, sensing s...

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