everything changed that day.

it was thirteen years ago today.

everything was already changing. we were on our way from seattle in a budget truck – david’s stuff loaded in the back – moving him to wisconsin. everything was in flux for both of us and we were riding on trusting the universe, a 20′ truck and love. it was no small deal.

as you have already read before, the sign “aussie pups” caught my attention and we turned around to drive up the hill at the farm. with only one puppy left – in sore need of adoption – we followed farmer don to see it.

d told me that australian shepherds are usually multicolored, merle, browns and whites and auburns with a bit of black, but never all black – which was good since we had decided that sooooomeday we would get a puppy – a black one so fur wouldn’t show up on our decidedly black wardrobe.

the only thing was – farmer don told us that the reason his only puppy was not being adopted was…wait for it…because he was all black.

cue life change.

we fell for his amber eyes the moment we saw him and he bounded over to us, curious about who he obviously knew was his new family.

even though we left a deposit and drove across the state, debating dog/no-dog/dog/no-dog for the next couple days, we figure dogga knew that whole time.

and then we drove back.

we picked him up. and our hearts and our family grew.

and now – as we watch him aging before our very eyes – as we pass through days when we are so, so worried about him – like this past weekend – we know our time is limited.

“this is nothing new,” you are thinking, “you’ve been writing about this.”

and yes…you are right…we have both been writing about this.

but today – today is that day – the day we met the aussie-angel who has walked with us. and that is a big deal.

he now has tiny grey hairs scattered across his face, not just around his muzzle. and every now and then he looks a little confused when he wakes up. there are other issues and concerns and we deal with each and have many workarounds. we stay home or close to home. there is nothing we can do to change it. we are in this with him just like he has been in life with us, through it all.

as 20 wrote the other day, “no matter how much love and sacrifice we give, we just can’t change the outcome.”

exactly.

what we can do is celebrate the moment that all that black fur came bounding at us – a full-throttled expression of exuberance, a full-throttled expression of i-am-who-you-need, a full-throttled expression of love that has carried us for thirteen glorious years of time spent together.

there are many things we are not doing these days, simply so that we are here for dogga. no matter.

we can hardly remember the before. we cannot think about the after. these days are the important ones.

in every way we are grateful that thirteen years ago our dogga – tripper – chose us and the universe gave us the wisdom to drive back.

*****

read DAVID’s thoughts this NOT-SO-FLAWED WEDNESDAY

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