March is Women’s History Month, which makes me reflect on the ways in which women have been strong, brave, and powerful in order to elicit change. International Women’s Day took place this past weekend, and I read a lot about how empowered women feel. I love it! It makes me think about how my dogs have helped empower me. If that sounds weird, bare with me and allow me to explain.
Last week, before my trip to Cuyahoga Valley National Park, my sister lovingly tagged me in an article about a burned body that was found in Cleveland. Not only was the body so badly burned that police had a hard time identifying the person, but the body was also missing its hands, feet, and head. The story is horrific, but it never fails, each time I am about to go on a trip, someone in my family does this.
Each time I announce I am going on a trip with Caesar I hear the same things: “Be careful” and “Don’t get murdered.” Yes, yes, okay. I will try not to be kidnapped and killed. But as much as others often fear for me, I rarely, if ever, have that fear myself.
When I take trips with Caesar we often stay in a hotel. During the day, we take hikes in the woods, often away from all civilization. I mean, it probably is the perfect set-up for a horror movie, except for the fact that people somehow forget that I am not in the middle of the woods alone. When I go on trips or when I talk walks, I am always accompanied by dogs the size of small bears. I have never once felt unsafe on my trips or walks with Caesar of Jeter in my presence.
Instead, thanks to my dogs, I feel empowered to go on trips without other humans, and I never let fear stop me. Fear serves no one. It does no one any good, and I literally have no fear when I am with my dogs. They have empowered me to be strong and brave. Caesar has allowed me to go places I may have never gone without him. Even when we were in Hocking Hills with no cell phone services, I felt safe with my German Shepherd.
I wish people would stop tagging me in murder stories when I am about to go on a trip. Sharing these stories with women when they are about to embark on an adventure keeps them scared. We need to empower each other, not make each other live in fear of what evil men in the woods might do. Staying home out of fear, closed up in your house, pretending that the outside world can’t touch you does not serve you. It does not help you grow.
The truth is, you can die anywhere at any time, even locked away inside your home. Why would I ever let fear stop me? I am not ignorant to the fact that these things do happen to people, but I refuse to let it stop me. People often ask me, “Aren’t you afraid of going alone?” And I always, always respond, “I’m not alone.”
I’m begging people, please stop treating me like a helpless woman and please stop acting like I am going places alone when I am, in fact, going with a dog that is the size of a human. I have been in situations where I was harassed by men while other men (men that should have protected me) stood by and watched. If anything, I am probably safer with my dog, who would defend me in all cases, than I am with other humans.
Not only have my dogs helped me be fearless, but they’ve also helped me gain confidence; the two basically go hand-in-hand. I feel confident in taking trips with Caesar or going on walks with Jeter. During my most recent trip to CVNP, I even ate at a sit-down restaurant alone while Caesar waited in the car. This is something I probably wouldn’t have done years ago for fear of seeming odd for sitting in a restaurant on a Saturday night alone.
I have gained so much independence thanks to my dogs. No longer do I feel the need to have to find humans to go with me everywhere. Instead, when I want to go someplace and no one else does, I just pack up a dog and go. I don’t let people and their lack of adventure hold me back.
My dogs have helped me become a strong, fearless, confident, independent woman. I thank them for that.