t's hard to believe that our Bailey-dog is seven years old today. Could it really have been that long ago that we saw her photo on the Bay Area Boxer Rescue site, her rescued mother having just given birth to a litter of black and white mixed-breed pups and called to say that we wanted to come and pick her up? Seven years seems significant in dog years and it amazes me to think of all we have been through together..From the very first night we brought her home,
all we wanted to do was snuggle her and take care of her,
play with her,
and provide her with warm alternatives to snuggling with her brood of brothers and sisters.
We will never forget the time we looked all over for her, only to find her curled up in the closet amongst daddy's shoes.
Or how quickly she became a daredevil to get out of her puppy confines in the kitchen.
(one might even call it an obsession)
even when said stick is actually a whole tree.
She has been through a lot in her seven years, including packing up life in California to move to Germany,
being made to wear ridiculous things like doggles
and daddy's old shirts,
and last summer, she had her first - and then not long after, her second - attack by other dogs in the park. She is resilient though (I'm still more traumatized than she ever was).
As a dog, she's gotten to experience more than even some people, going from a California beach doggy,
to being a swanky Wiesbaden Hund,
not to mention visiting castles in Germany,
to sightseeing in Strasbourg, France.
She has gone from her first California snow trip in Tahoe,
to snowy parks every winter here in Germany,
and from swimming in Grandma's pool,
to having entire rivers to cool off in.
She always warms our hearts and makes us laugh, whether it's becoming 'nun Bailey' whenever anyone is in the shower,
the silly ways she contorts her jowls
and her ears,
how she kind of looks like a cow from underneath
and like a Gremlin when she was a puppy that we used to let sleep on the sofa,
that she always wants to be a part of whatever is going on in the kitchen, even if she shouldn't,
her never-ending quest for people food,
her boundless optimism that one day, she will get that squirrel,
or just her general, jubilant craziness.
Sure, she is afraid of doors
and vacuum cleaners,
has a bit of a drooling problem,
(make that a major problem)
and as an elusive Boxador, perhaps suffers a bit from an identity crisis,
but deep down, she's really a lover
(even to her toys she rips apart)
and when we're away from her, we miss her terribly.
We've come a long way together...
and we only hope she has enjoyed the ride so far as much as we have!
So today we wish a big happy birthday to our furry member of the family as well as to my baby brother, though he's far from a baby now. Happy birthday guys - we love you both!
Here's to many more years of fun!
Daily Drop Cap by Jessica Hische
