Day 23, The Wag of a Tail

Today is the five year anniversary of Big Boy (Brisco) and Li'l Bit's (Charlene) adoption/Gotcha Day so I thought it was the perfect day in my 31 days series to talk about the magical wag of the tail. To know me is to know of my love for all things four-legged and furry, especially dogs, even more specifically Dachshunds. But really, I just love 'em all.

There is no day bad enough or mood dark enough that their unfaltering love and loyalty cannot ease or lighten when I walk through that door to their little excited faces, wagging tails, and pure ecstatic joy and delight over the discovery that I have returned home once again. They just love, love, love with their whole hearts and tails. 

If you are a dog person then you get it and it really never gets old, does it? 

The dogless month I spent in the fall of 2009, after Dixie died and before we adopted the Darlings, was heartbreaking. That little Dachshund was in my life and by my side for fourteen years (through an awful lot of grief, heartache and tears) and to suddenly have her gone and be left with no doggie love at all was just about more than this dog-loving soul could stand. I cried myself to sleep night after night. 

While getting another, new dog (or in this case, two) doesn't take away that pain of losing the one you loved so much, for so long, it sure does help. And eventually you realize that it is more than possible to love the new ones every bit as much as you did the one you lost. Because they just have that extraordinary way about them. It's like...magic (Name that movie. One more time.). 

It's like God gave them this little extra something-something that touches and heals something within us that nothing else can get at. For those who have never allowed an animal into their lives and hearts will not understand it but for those of us who have and do (again and again, loss after heartbreaking loss) know that it is one of the very best parts of living and we wonder why or how anybody ever gets through this thing called life without them.

Maybe I'm sounding melodramatic here but I can't help myself. I LOVE MY DOGS. They make the world a happier, better place for me and as long as I'm living there will be tail-waggers in my life and paws prints on my heart.

October 23, 2009

Present Day

And Lucky Dog too :)

Day 23