TO LEARN TO LOVE AGAIN

[Cathy C. Bennett]

This has to be the most tempestuous season of the year. At least for me it is. I believe there’s a conspiracy theory between the Lifetime Channel and all retailers because I sob like a child who can’t find her favorite toy, as I watch all these holiday movies.

I hear myself telling people I love them at the end of a phone call, and truth be told half of the time I really don’t!!!

And why am I always picking up last minute items for other people that I barely know. Help me please! I feel so out of control… GEEZ!

But then this is also that time of year when I spend an enormous amount of time feeling truly blessed for everything and everybody that has touched my life in one way or another…

Absolutely the sweetest dog I’ve ever known.

That is why I’ve chosen to write about someone else today. I want to tell you about a special friend who’s learned to love again…

Blogging is still relatively new for me. I’ve been at it, really “at it” for a little over a year and I’m still a novice in the field. Pet blogging is pawsome, rewarding, and all that jazz. But at the same time it can be somewhat frightening when navigating through unknown territories for the first time.

One of the zillion things you learn quickly and find fascinating is following other pet bloggers. You learn so much and because we all love our pets, we’re able to connect on various different levels.

This always excites me because I love meeting that person who “get’s you”, understands, and accepts you along with your pet obsessions – without question or judgement!

I remember almost to the day when I stumbled onto Keep the Tail Wagging by Kimberly Gauthier. Instantly “I got her”…

After commenting on her site a few times, she responded, and then began following The Boys. I had a new friend!

She had been at this much longer than I, so I associated her as my “Yoda” or the “Elder” and without calling me “Young Grasshopper” she would encourage and support me when I needed it the most.

“Offline” we quickly discovered that we enjoyed talking about our “babies” and of all her pups,“Blue” seemed to hold the most real estate in her heart. There seemed to be a kindred spirit between them…

Kim and her boy Blue

She spoke often to me about Blue as I did to her about Harley-Darley…

Look at my baby – “King of the deck steps!”

By early spring I was delighted to find out I would finally get to meet my friend at the Blog Paws Conference in VA…

Of course The Boys came along (yes, that’s “Wilson”)

Kim was presenting that year and of course I would be in attendance. It was wonderful to meet her and even more of a thrill to gain pet blogging knowledge and insight from what she had prepared to share with a room full of pet bloggers…

Yoda & Grasshopper

Over the summer we became great phone pals, and we still take time to read each others latest blog entries and share comments back and forth as time permits.

On the evening of October 22nd, I logged onto her website only to gasp when I read the headline:To My Blueberry | It’s Not Goodbye, It’s See You Later 

Blue was gone…

I stared at the screen, and as I read her latest post, the tears began to fall. I kept thinking about all our laughs comparing Blue to Harley, their antics, quirks and personality similarities.

Blue was gone…

I grabbed my cell phone and quickly put it down. I pecked at my keyboard only to “delete” almost a half a dozen times. On October 24th (two days later) I finally pressed the return key after writing this:

Once she emerged from that secluded place where she so desperately needed to be, she called. We talked about a bunch of stuff, she said her other two fur babies were keeping her busy and each day she said she was getting stronger and stronger. Yet before we said goodbye she told me how much she missed her friend. She missed Blue.

On December 10th I received a comment from Kim about one of my blog posts pertaining to Bed Bugs (the four legged kind):

When I saw that last sentence “And yes, you read that right, puppies” I smiled all day long. Kim was ready to open her heart AND her home to some more puppy love.

We talked the day before she was scheduled to meet her two new fur babies. I begged her to please send me pics once they were headed back home, and she did…

In the car making their way to their new furever home

She now is the proud pet parent of two sets of litter mates and this latest dose of double-love has already surrounded and secured that space in her heart where Blue resides. She’s learned to love again, and I am so happy for my friend.

For those of us who live in similar “pet-attached” worlds, the meaning of the word “love” to us is simple. It’s about the enormous amount of love that gets drawn out of you when that tail “starts to wagging” and the unconditional and constant flow of love you allow to be poured back in.

Meet Zoey & Scout…

PAWdorable

Thanks for reading about our furrends…

[Lynda Kamrath]

Thanks for blogging - you are getting very good at it!  We have a name for that special dog that resides in the heart of his person - a heartdog.  And, if you have ever known one of these people, you know their "heartdog".  I am much stronger after losing my heartdog three years ago and better able to handle what life has to hand out.  I ma guessing that Zoey and Scout are Aussiedoodles, but maybe not.  She has her hands full anyway.  Three-month-old puppies - now that takes some courage.  I remember the other two.  Is the other one still around to help train the puppies?