Yes, I’ve decided to make the 1000th post on this blog about our dog, Riley. Our cat, Lefty, approves. After all, Lefty has been the topic of many blog posts, and he is big enough to say “Hey, yeah, Riley has been a good boy and deserves a post.”
In October we will have had Riley for 3 years. The time has passed fast. It doesn’t seem possible.
Honestly, I have always liked dogs but never had the desire to actually have one. Too much responsibility.
However, my wife has always wanted a dog and fell in love with her sister’s sheltie many years ago. After going through cancer treatment at the height of the Covid pandemic, then getting well enough to finish her PhD dissertation, she said “OK, I want to get my dog.” After such a superhuman effort, how could I say no? Truth is I wouldn’t have said no anyway. I want her to have whatever she wants.
She said she didn’t want to leave this world never having known the love of a dog. That was enough for me.
I could write a book already on our time so far with this dog. From the first 6 or 8 months which were just hard (neither of us had ever had a dog before much less a 9-week old puppy) to now it has been a true journey of discovery.
This dog is just so great. He loves everyone and everything. He wants to make friends with any living creature he encounters. From human, to other dog, to cat, to rat, he sees a new friend in everyone. He’s sweet and I’ve never seen any sort of aggression from him at all. He loves to have jobs, from watching to see what’s happening in front of the house and alerting us to “trouble” to bringing in the mail, he loves to work. He’s goofy and playful. And he is attached to my wife. He is her constant shadow. Nothing pleases me more than this simple fact.
She put it best, after reading or hearing this somewhere. They have short lives. It is our job to make every day a great day for him. That is what we try to do. He doesn’t ask for much. He just wants to be with us. What do I want for him? I want him to have a long and happy sheltie life, which is around 12 years or maybe a little more, and for every day to be good for him. I want him to always feel secure and loved. And I’m going to steal this last one from my wife and expand it to include me — when the day comes that he breaks our hearts (may that be a long time from now) I want us both to be here, still, together, to feel it.
