I am in love with my baby dawg. It's a delightfully simple and pure love. She has her issues, but I think she is perfect exactly as she is - it's me who needs more training. She has been part of my life for over eight years, longer than any of my partnerships have lasted. She's even outlasted my longest permanent work situation. I know I will always love her and whatever time we have together will seem too short. Things about her that I love: her goofy sense of humor and playfulness, her expressive face and brown eyes; her willingness to join me on my adventures - long road trips, hiking the Appalachian Trail, neighborhood runs, local trail runs, and swimming; that she smells like corn tortillas; her feet - seriously, she has the most perfect feet; her agility and powerful athleticism - seeing her run full tilt, jump obstacles, launch herself with abandon into the water time after time to retrieve, and swim as fast as she can; the way she will lay with part of her body on my foot, rest her head in my lap as I drive, or sit next to me on the loveseat; her sensitivity to my sadness or loneliness - how she'll bring me a toy because that always cheers her up, or just get close to me; the whole body wag; how she'll do zoomies around the house or yard after getting toweled off post-bath or rainy run; her intelligence, which equates to a need for work to do and puzzles to solve - I'm convinced she's much smarter than me, and let's me think I'm in charge; her eagerness to learn and responsiveness to training - her willingness to hop in a canoe, cross log bridges, climb mountains and playground equipment; her love of food; her love of people - once you get past her initial fears; her respect of rabbits, cats, and other creatures - except flies, those are for catching; and her love of my nieces.I never would have guessed upon our first meeting that I'd be this devoted for this long. She has done so much to teach me what it means to really love and forgive. I sometimes fall short of doing the very best for her that I can, but she loves me just the same. Gracie keeps me on my toes, brings more joy into my life, and I'm grateful that she's in my life.
2 comments:
Today must be a dog day--this is the second celebration of a canine friend that I've seen from Holidailies. I love all the little details that both have a universal dog-ness to them and also show your own girl's personality.
Before we lived together, my now-wife and I talked about getting a dog, and I was against it–-not enough space, not enough time, too much moving, yadda yadda yadda. She got one anyway (we weren’t living together or even engaged, so that was her perogative). And in no time flat I’d fallen in love with Beaker and within a year she was more my dog than Lauren’s (and still is). That’s a dog for you: they’ll wriggle into your heart no matter what you think going into it.
Gracie is one lucky dog, to get a love letter like that.
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