🐾 My Dog Is an Eternal Optimist. (Is Yours?)
🐾 My Dog Is an Eternal Optimist. (Is Yours?) 🎣
Dogs are like fishermen: eternal optimists. I see this in my friend Fran, my three-year-old grandson, and my black lab, Buster.
The Optimism of Fran, My Grandson, and Buster 🌟
Fran fishes for hours, his persistence unwavering even when the fish aren’t biting. I went fishing with Fran and our friend Lynne off the coast of Massachusetts. The only thing biting that day was dog sharks, which he doesn’t eat. But he never lost his sense of humor or joy as we motored around for half a day.
And my grandson? With his net in the tiny pond, he’s always determined to catch more frogs, never giving up until he’s satisfied. I watched him on a recent warm, sunny late afternoon. He just didn’t give up. If his attempts weren’t producing a catch, he called me in to help. He knew there were frogs in there, and he was bound and determined to catch them over and over.
Now, Buster was an interesting dog. He loved to fish. Buster was my only dog that loved to fish. He would stand in the lake about waist-deep and watch for any movement in the water. Once something came into his sight—be it a leaf or a fish—he would attempt to catch it. I don’t know how he thought he could catch anything with one paw, but he tried repeatedly. Once, he fished for two hours. He amazed us all. We once found a minnow on the shore by his fishing spot and wondered if he had managed to toss it up there.
Eternal Optimism: The Key to a Healthy Life ☕
Eternal optimism, in my humble opinion, is an essential part of a healthy life. If you’re anything like most Americans, you get out of bed thinking about that first cup of coffee. We usually keep plenty on hand because we don’t want to run out. Or, I guess, as I think about it, many of you head to Starbucks or Dunkin’ Donuts for your morning java. I like making coffee at home, reading, reflecting, and planning my day while drinking it.
What Brings Customers Back Year After Year? 🏡
I started thinking about what brings a customer back to us year after year. We have customers who have been with us for as long as thirty or forty years. And when they retire, the younger generation often continues to buy from us. That’s the beauty of running a small, family-owned business that’s been around for 131 years.
When we were still in our Littleton, Massachusetts office, where many customers came and picked up their fencing, I met a customer from Maine who loved to talk. He told me he had started buying from Louis E. Page in the 1950s! He said he was about to turn ninety and would retire one of these days! Now, that’s loyalty and eternal optimism for us and his company.
I miss those days of seeing our customers in person. When one of you reaches out to me, as Ray did this morning, it makes my day.
"Yes, Debbie, in the old days when cars and trucks had real steel bumpers and fence companies had not the best running vehicles we have jump started a vehicle by jamming the bumpers together to make the 'ground wire' and then used a bent tension bar for the 'hot wire'."
I loved hearing this story. It’s another example of how we believe we can make something happen and figure out how to do it.
Keep the Stories Coming! 📞
Keep the stories and comments coming, and call Terry for your next fencing project. And if it’s in your heart, tell others about us. Our best customers come from you!
All my best regards in gratitude, Debbie Page
CEO, Louis E. Page Inc.—Woman-owned business and family-owned since 1893.
(That’s right! A little more than 131 years ago, our family ancestor Louis Everett Page founded the company in Boston.)
