so i actually dont know if 6/15 was the real date, it may have been written on her papers, i vaguely remember that, but it was the day i celebrated her birth, and it was near the date, so it counts.
dogs give this gift, the gift of unconditional love.
you feed them
you snggle them
you scratch them
you love them
but none of that can compare to the unconditional love they always give back, and that is just what bob gave to me.
bob came to me in a time i desperately needed something to be just mine. i was so in limbo, in a period of my life where i just had no clue what the hell i was going to do. i had zero direction, no mentors, wasnt accomplishing much, didnt have any goals, heck, i didnt even know what goal setting was! i dont regret those years, they were extremely fun, and drunk, but fun, and shaped me along with several more years of that. looking back on it now i dont regret it. could i have done it different, of course, but i do not regret it.
i was getting a dog, and naming it bob. that was my direction. i found her in the paper, you remember, that black and white thing they used to print daily and would end up on your doorstep! she was $375 which to me and my budget equated about $375,000.00, but i scounged it together somehow. My friend Chris Tindera and I drove the 60 minutes to Ashland and rolled home minutes later with the cutest little ball of wrinkles on my lap.
She was with me constantly, when i did get a 'job' she went with me, my first house purchase was based on the yard and space for her, she walked me down the aisle at my wedding, she was an ice sculpture at the reception and she prepped me for the greatest journey of my life, becoming a mom.
when i was pregnant with grace i used to worry, worry i could never love my baby as much as i loved bob. (dont worry, i quickly learned i could). bob adapted so perfectly to life with a baby, and grace become her baby to love and protect. when i lost bob a piece of my heart was torn from my chest, never to return. thankfully, she filled that same heart i was able to move on, after days in bed sobbing. yes...i spent days in bed sobbing over the loss of my dog. the guilt of her life being cut short will always be with me, haunting me, but the joy of her dog years pushes the guilt away too.
we still talk about bob. my kids still joke i love bob more than them. there are still pictures of her around the house, a little cement replica of her in the flower bed. 0615 is a date to most people, but to me it is a daily reminder of the unconditional love that was given to me. the love that gave me a purpose. dog years that i am forever grateful i had.
xoxoxoxoxox
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