Matt and Bubba

His name was Matt but they called him Mutt and a shelter was his home. He had a tough life before being rescued and brought to the shelter. Perhaps that's why he was so mad and sad and often barked as people came to look at him.

“He's mean. Let's pick another doggy,” the children would say to their parents as they walked away from his cage.

“Where you going?” Matt would say, but it was too late. They were gone and Matt was left wondering why he had no one to love and no one to love him.

He often walked around the yard during play time and complained to anyone who would listen. He complained about his past. He complained about being at the shelter. He complained that his life wasn't what he dreamed it would be when he was a young pup. When he grew tired of complaining he would just lie down by himself, think of all the sad events from the past, and feel depressed.

One day while walking around the yard feeling sorry for himself he came across Bubba, the big dog who was walking around singing his favorite song about a dog uniting with his owner.

Bubba loved country music, fresh cold air, positive psychology, movies with happy endings, and most of all, helping the hopeless find hope. He smiled at the little dog who approached him and wondered if he'd ever seen anything more hopeless. He knew someone had to teach this dog how to hunt for the good things in life. Besides, he had made a pact: One day, not long ago, Bubba woke up to find his house on fire. Trapped in the maze of flames and smoke, he promised that if he made it out alive, he would help everyone and anyone he could.

“What's up little mutt? What's got you so down?” Bubba asked the sad, little dog.

“Oh, a bunch of things,” said Matt. “I've got one problem bigger than the next. I've got so many big problems, I don't know which one is the biggest.”

“I do,” said Bubba as he put his paw on Matt's shoulder. “Since our cages are right across from each other, I've been watching you for a while now and I definitely know your biggest problem.”

“You do?” said Matt as his eyes opened wider.

“Yep,” said Bubba. “It's so clear, but you can't see it because you are blinded by negativity. Your biggest problem is that you are feeding the negative dog inside you. You see, we all have two dogs inside of us. One dog is positive, happy, optimistic, and hopeful. The other dog is negative, mad, sad, pessimistic, and fearful. These two dogs often fight inside us but guess who wins the fight?”

Matt looked confused. “I don't know, Bubba,” he said as he shook his head.

“The dog who wins is the one you feed the most,” Bubba exclaimed. “You have to feed the positive dog inside you and starve the negative dog. The more you feed the positive dog, the more it grows. The more you starve the negative dog, the more it shrinks and weakens. You become the dog you feed, so feed the positive dog and your big problems will give way to big blessings and a bright future.”

Bubba then playfully tagged Matt and off they ran to play around the yard and talk about the power and benefits of positivity and the costs of negativity.