It’s a warm September evening in San Francisco. A young man was set up with a blind date. He goes to her North Beach address.
It turns out, her apartment is on the top floor of a nice old building. He rings in and takes the elevator up; he knocks on her door. “I’m still getting ready,” calls out a feminine voice, “the door’s unlocked; come on in!”
He enters the apartment. Eclectic, books and relics of international travel – nice. A friendly cocker spaniel comes up to greet him.
The balcony doors are open to the warm September breezes. “I’ll be out in a minute,” she calls, “Why don’t you play with my dog Aggie? She’s great at fetching; there’s a ball on the couch.”
The man tosses Aggie a soft grounder; the dog nails it and fetches the ball back to his hand. Then the man throws her a hard bouncer. The ball caroms off a wall, bounces out the balcony doors and over the balcony rail.
The eager dog follows it: out the doors, over the rail, and down 25 stories. The man is utterly astonished, speechless. Just then the woman comes out of the bathroom. The man says “Er, we need to hurry to make the opening at Broadway by the Bay; let’s go!” It’s a wonderful evening.
The play is a good one, and there’s clearly some chemistry going on between the two people. So, it’s not until several hours later in a small candle-lit table at The View lounge that the woman asks the man “Well, what did you think of Aggie?”
“You know,” says the man, “I’m no dog psychologist, but to me, she seemed awfully depressed.”
Mental health is as important as physical health. Unfortunately, in the past, it was harder to treat mental related illnesses.
Many people were ashamed of having mental health challenges and avoided seeking professional help. If you believe you have a mental illness, don’t suffer in silence, find out about the available resources to help mental related illnesses.
