The story of my dog and how she saves me from Dev-related stress.
Meet my dog, Cinny. She is 11 years old and she’s still amazing. I remember when she was a puppy, fascinated with chasing basketballs, tennis balls, mirrors, cars, and when people just got home. Many people told me that a pom is a dumb dog — it’s not a manly dog. Well, I can honestly say, I trained her and she became smart. She functions like an alarm clock every 5am, barking at my door or my parents’ door to wake us up (and of course, to let her out into the yard).
She has survived 2 major injuries: one broken leg and massive internal bleeding (from fighting another dog). I couldn’t sleep when she was in pain, or sick, because let’s face it, dogs are like family. She’s my best friend.
The ultimate companion
You’re probably wondering why this has anything to do with deving and/or designing. Cinny likes to sit on my feet when I’m working, she knows when I’m stuck, or sad. She stands up and asks me to put her on my lap when I’m stressed. I pet her, she’ll look at the screen, and curl up like a furry shrimp.
I lost my stress, get back on deving. Three hours later, she would try to climb my chest, looks at me weird, jumps off, stares at my door and barks once. I open the door, followed her downstairs, she barks at the front door, I opened it, stepped out of the door, she pushes the door close from the inside (which always fails because she’s too small, but I get the message) — telling me to take a break and get some air. Every time this happens, I laugh, and stress is gone.
Wondering why your app.js file has errors? Cinny’s got my back.
Writing a thousand line of SASS? Cinny’s got my back.
She inspires me to relax more and eat more (….sad to say that her favourite food is KFC). This is her recently:
Now I live in Canada, far away from Cinny, I miss her, but every time stressed at work, stuck, and uninspired, this is the picture I look at. It saves me from a lot of things.
I hope this post reminds you of a better time in stressful moments. The dev environment can be a brutally stressful place and this is my weird way of dealing with it. A web developer (or any tech professionals) is not a body of nerdy clichés.
Editor’s note: This story originally appeared here.