Let's start with 2 truths and a lie.
1. In general, people agree that you should not have a favorite child or pet. To quote my mom, "Of course I love all of you boys equally." We tried to hide our skepticism growing up when she said that.
2. My dog Lucy, who endured pretty terrible abuse before my wife and I rescued her, has the dearest ambition of both catching varmints, and eating as many treats as she can during the day. We feel that she deserves as many treats as she wants.
3. Until Lucy came along, I felt terrible guilt for almost 10 years about my beloved black lab Rosie (3rd picture, on the right) and how I yelled at her on her last day with us. Lucy helped my heart heal a good bit from that.
I lied. All three of those statements are true
I don't know how you feel about reincarnation, or life being cyclical, or that maybe sometimes God sends us messages when we least expect it. Rosie was a great dog, like all dogs are, and she along with her brother suffered abuse before my family rescued the two of them when I was 9 years old. Rosie and Bo were fixtures in our lives for 10 years, until one night Rosie and Bo escaped from my Mom's yard, and got separated. Rosie came home, but the next morning, we couldn't find Bo. Rosie was in too much pain to walk and when I left the house that morning, I scolded her for running off. We still hadn't found Bo, and I was upset. I didn't know it, but that was the last thing I ever said to sweet Rosie. My mom put her down that morning to keep her from being in pain any longer.
Miraculously, we found Bo that afternoon, and he spent another year with my family before he got sick with cancer and passed away. Even with the bonus time we got with Bo, I carried guilt with me for years about Rosie. All she had wanted was to run with her brother, and I scolded her in the last hours of her life for it. Just the thought of her would bring such acute guilt that I would have to leave the room I was in, and there was many a night I laid awake hoping that I would have a chance to redeem myself for sweet Rosie.
Like I said, I don't know how you feel about the cyclical nature of life, or God sending is signals, but I got what I believe was a signal loud and clear in November 2018.
A friend of my girlfriend (now wife) told us about a dog that had been abused, and was now spending almost 24 hours a day kenneled in a house with 5 other dogs, and asked if we wanted to give her a better life. I cannot recall what we talked about renaming this mysterious dog, but the second we met her and she jumped up into Tayler's truck, we knew that Lucy was going to stick around in our house. She immediately got along with our other GSD, and we realized that Lucy loved nothing more than getting some treats for being the best dog, even if all she was asked to do was lay on the floor. To this day, Lulu will not turn down a treat under any circumstances.
At the same time as Lucy joined our household, I was going through some personal issues of my own, and I spent many a day laying on the couch with Lucy talking about the demons that I was battling. This sweet dog became a sort of sounding board for all of the things I could't say to another person, and I realized that Lucy might have been a quiet nudge that it was time to lose some of the guilt I had been dragging along for the better part of a decade. Somehow, Lulu let me know that it was time to forgive myself of the guilt I felt about Rosie, and maybe forgive myself for letting Double IPAs and Jim Beam upend a career that had started off like a rocket and fizzled out like a wet sparkler on July 5th.
The other day I was texting Tayler about our dogs, and she told me to quit sending pictures of Lucy since she was my favorite, and send pictures of our other two pups. That's when it hit me that of course Lucy is my favorite. She always will be, even though our other two dogs are sweet and goofy, and loving in the kind of way that only dogs can be. Lucy is my favorite because she helped me through a time in my life when I could have chosen not to get a handle on drinking, and lost even more good things in my life than I already had. Lucy told me that somehow, in a long ago time and place, Rosie didn't blame me for being upset at her, when my heart was aching for us to find her brother. Lucy showed me that moving forward into the future is always the best, since it leads us away from 23 hour kennel stays and towards a bucket of treats that is never empty. Lucy showed me that healing is possible, and even probable, with time and love.
Thats why she is my favorite.
