Happy Birthday, Beastie!!

When we found out, about 3 years ago, that I couldn't have any more children, a hole formed in my heart. We do plan on adopting, as soon as life gets started in Denver, but I still had to deal with that hole every day. At the end of last summer, it was particularly hard. My wonderful, insightful husband decided I needed something small and helpless, something that needed ME as much as I needed them. We tentatively started researching dog breeds, visiting shelters, looking at classified ads... we live in a TINY apartment, so we figured a medium-sized dog would be perfect. Then we came across this ad... "black lab golden retriever mix, one puppy left". We thought we would give them a call, go see, just for fun. Teresa, the breeder, said "Why not come tonight?" We arrived, and she placed about 10 pounds of fluffy, drowsy, freshly washed black fur in my arms. She looked up, laid her nose right under my chin, sighed, and fell asleep. And I fell in love. Then her dad came in... He. Is. HUGE. He looks like a golden retriever the size of a Saint Bernard, and I was so scared Stephen wouldn't want her, if she could get that big!!! But he DID!!! We took her home the next day, after scrambling to buy all her supplies, and our family gained our first little girl.

We named her "Bracken", for no reason other than it sounded neat and fit her. She learned from the beginning that her job was to snuggle with Mommy, and she's very very good at it. She still tries to sit in my chair with me, even though her 85 pound self doesn't fit anymore!

She and Joe are best buds. They have that classic "boy and his dog" bond. 

 There was a space in our family just waiting for her, and now she's here. I can't believe it has only been a year, I almost can't remember life without her! She is my therapy, my beastie, my little girl. She can't take the place of a child, but she's made her OWN place, that makes that loss ache less. When the expecting mothers in our church chatted about how they or their children were sleeping through the night, I would declare "My PUPPY is sleeping through the night!!"

She makes us laugh, checks on us when we're sad, gets me up out of my chair to go outside, and watches over us through all our adventures. She even hugs us back!

 Happy Birthday, Beastie, Pollywog, Pupper, Gorgeous, Doggerpup, Girlie, Bracken, We love you!!!

(She did eventually conquer the brush. It has been throughly dispatched.)