Today is Mazie’s Gotcha Day anniversary. One year since we met and I brought her home with me. And what a year it’s been! She was four weeks pregnant when we met and had recently been rescued from a home with 100 dogs. No kidding. And no wonder she was pregnant. She was traumatized.
At first, I had no idea what I was doing, despite having had dogs before. I’m sure my Athena (whom I adopted at 6 months old in 2008) was traumatized, maybe even abused. She had the worst separation anxiety I’ve ever seen. But Mazie had never seen grass before, never been in a car, never gone for a walk. It was three weeks before I was able to get her to walk down the driveway and across the street.
And then, before you knew it, she had puppies!
She was such a good mama. She made me a part of the process right from the beginning. Those first few nights, waking me when I had finally fallen asleep to come back and look at the neat thing she had done. Truly, it was incredibly sweet.
This little girl has changed my life. I’ve had dogs before but I pretty much made them adapt to me. This time around, I’ve adapted to Mazie.
When she wants to walk a different route, I follow her. When she wants to play, I stop working. When she wants to snuggle, I move the book or food or whatever is on my lap to give her room. I’m typically gone for no more than four hours at a time and when I do leave, Lucky Dog is on the TV . Kinda crazy, right? I’ve become that woman. I admit it. And I couldn’t be happier.
I like the pace of my life now. I’ve recovered from the need to always be productive. I’ve allowed a little bit of chaos and spontaneity to infiltrate my routine. My life feels calm and drama-free. Every day this small dog makes me laugh, makes me happy. And what, my friends, is better than that?
Here’s to our first anniversary! May there be many more!
Happy Anniversary to you and Mazie. The two of you look so good in your picture! We are right there with you in letting our dog Millie to call the shots. Dogs enrich our lives so darn much if we just engage with them more. Our dear girl has me playing hide and seek with a ball two or three times a day. It's a joy to watch her face as she looks for a perfect spot behind this bush or that one to make me work to find a very slobbery ball.
Haha, Lucky Dog on TV. Why am I laughing, we leave ESPN or the Longhorn Channel on for our pups. :)