{"id":334,"date":"2015-01-13T19:07:54","date_gmt":"2015-01-13T19:07:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?p=334"},"modified":"2015-01-13T19:07:54","modified_gmt":"2015-01-13T19:07:54","slug":"what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html","title":{"rendered":"What My Dog Taught Me about Divorce"},"content":{"rendered":"

One cold night on the streets of Scranton, Pennsylvania, me and my husband make our way home from a college party. Of course, at this point he is my boyfriend. The streets of Scranton are packed with the usual cast of characters. Yes, the town of Scranton really is as eccentric as the television show, The Office depicts.<\/p>\n

The cold familiar to the mountainous region, has us huddling close together as we walk. We are feet away from the street corner when suddenly my husband races to my right side and pushes me slightly to the left. In his frenzy, I notice a gorgeous, regal, Doberman and his owner in front of us.<\/p>\n

“Oh my gosh,” I proclaim in absolute shock. “Did you just dart to the other side and put me on the direct side of the dog?”<\/p>\n

“Yes,” he responds shamelessly. <\/p>\n

I laugh and pass the black and tan supposed threat. Since the time I am fourteen I have worked at a kennel affiliated with a veterinary hospital. It is how I am paying my way through college. I have no fear of animals and I am wise enough to know that many of the breeds that people fear are gentle giants. So I shrug this event off. It is meaningless to me. <\/p>\n

The truth is looking back it was one huge, gigantic, enormous, metaphorical red flag. It is foreshadowing who will ultimately always come first in our relationship.<\/p>\n

As a child, my family had two dogs, a cat, and various, horses, birds, hamsters, gerbils, rabbits, etc. I grew up in what at that time, was considered rural country just twenty minutes outside of metropolitan, Washington, D.C. Therefore, it is somewhat inconceivable that I married a man who didn’t like animals, let alone dogs. I had dreams of living on a gentleman’s farm as an adult. Instead, I marry someone who won’t allow me to get a dog until we are married six years and have children. In his defense, he does like puppies. Just not once they grow up. Not even the ones that lived (a golden retriever and a chocolate lab) in our own house.<\/p>\n

I am restting against my pillow. It is late night. I am typing column notes into my phone. My chocolate lab, Hazel is smooshed, comfortably into a ball at the foot of my bed. <\/p>\n

Hazel is my new litmus test. I will no longer be drawn to anyone who doesn’t like animals, let alone dogs.<\/p>\n

I turn off the light. Hazel lifts her head with my movement. She contently slumbers back to sleep. <\/p>\n

I have my dog. She is loving, selfless and relentlessly, loyal with absolutely no intention of leaving me.
\n\"IMG_0126\"<\/a>
\nFollow me on Facebook @Colleen Sheehy Orme
\non Twitter @colleenorme
\non Pinterest @colleensheehyorme
\nE-mail: Colleen.Sheehy.Orme@gmail.com
\nwww.colleensheehyorme.com<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One cold night on the streets of Scranton, Pennsylvania, me and my husband make our way home from a college party. Of course, at this point he is my boyfriend. The streets of Scranton are packed with the usual cast of characters. Yes, the town of Scranton really is as eccentric as the television show,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1,14,29,9],"tags":[63,230,2,62,8,16,41,232,5,43,64],"class_list":["post-334","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-catholic","category-divorce-2","category-inspiration","category-self-improvement","category-spirituality","tag-animals","tag-catholic","tag-divorce","tag-dogs","tag-faith","tag-gratitude","tag-healing","tag-inspiration","tag-love","tag-marriagecounseling","tag-pets"],"yoast_head":"\nWhat My Dog Taught Me about Divorce - How Great Thou Part<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, nofollow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What My Dog Taught Me about Divorce - How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"One cold night on the streets of Scranton, Pennsylvania, me and my husband make our way home from a college party. Of course, at this point he is my boyfriend. The streets of Scranton are packed with the usual cast of characters. Yes, the town of Scranton really is as eccentric as the television show,…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"How Great Thou Part\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-01-13T19:07:54+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/01\/IMG_0126-300x229.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Colleen Sheehy Orme\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What My Dog Taught Me about Divorce - How Great Thou Part","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"nofollow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What My Dog Taught Me about Divorce - How Great Thou Part","og_description":"One cold night on the streets of Scranton, Pennsylvania, me and my husband make our way home from a college party. Of course, at this point he is my boyfriend. The streets of Scranton are packed with the usual cast of characters. Yes, the town of Scranton really is as eccentric as the television show,…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html","og_site_name":"How Great Thou Part","article_published_time":"2015-01-13T19:07:54+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/01\/IMG_0126-300x229.jpg"}],"author":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html","name":"What My Dog Taught Me about Divorce - How Great Thou Part","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/01\/IMG_0126-300x229.jpg","datePublished":"2015-01-13T19:07:54+00:00","dateModified":"2015-01-13T19:07:54+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/01\/IMG_0126-300x229.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/files\/2015\/01\/IMG_0126-300x229.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/2015\/01\/what-my-dog-taught-me-about-divorce.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What My Dog Taught Me about Divorce"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/","name":"How Great Thou Part","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Colleen Orme","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/#\/schema\/person\/8f4436fdd06cdbb61d63a9a788b98e15","name":"Colleen Sheehy Orme","description":"Born and raised in Northern Virginia outside of Washington, D.C., I often call myself a southern New Yorker, much to the dismay of my true New Yorker buddies. Born to my native Brooklyn parents, I have a love of all things city and all things country. I found myself in the town of Scranton, Pennsylvania, which prior to The Office, nary a soul could envision less you found yourself on the hills of Interstate 81. I was held up there while I pursued my B.S. in Business. I have two passions: Business marketing and writing. The two are not so terribly different. Why? Cultivating a brand is in essence the story and the connecting of the dots of a corporate entity. I write features for various magazines and newspapers and I am a national divorce columnist (what can I say things didn\u2019t turn out quite the way I thought they would). I am also a former business columnist. For more than fifteen years, I spent my summers on the Jersey Shore in what I call my \u2018out of state\u2019 clothes once again magnetized to the northerners I find so familiar. If I were to brand my writing, I would say I write of LOVE. That is the core from which I begin most stories. I find myself drawn to dig for the moments in the story that are the passion that drive the message. It may be the love of what originally started a business or an authentically motivated personal profile, or simply the love of a subject being investigated which compels me to write. My forever favorite form of writing is the human interest essay or what I call, \u201cAn Interview With Life.\u201d The average day that is explored and somehow once again instills in us a joie de vivre\u2026..a joy of life. These human moments are the Hope Virus that spreads amongst us and can\u2019t help but propel us into better human beings with a larger sense of the world.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/author\/corme"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=334"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/334\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=334"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=334"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/howgreatthoupart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=334"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}