We celebrate a lot of anniversaries. In Autumn’s case, there’s her birthday (8/29/13), when we met her (it’s in my journal somewhere), when she first came to live with us (11/25/13), when we gave her up (11/27/13), and when we got her back, which was one year ago today. Yes, it’s a long story, all documented here and in her ever-expanding photo album. We are over the moon with both our sweet dogs.
[As often happens when people fawn over Autumn, Luke wants you to remember him, too.]
[The following was first published 1/1/14.]
You may recall that prior to Thanksgiving, we adopted a dog named Autumn (Dogs of Future Passed). Within a week, we returned her (Grief and puppy love), in large part because I seemed to be allergic to her and also because I let her take over the household and began to regret that. Letting her go was very difficult for us, to say the least.
In the 6 weeks since then, we’ve talked about Autumn almost daily, second-guessed and regretted our decision, then resolved to put it behind us. We have the best dog in the world in Luke (all dog owners believe this of their dogs — it’s part of that powerful bond between us). With Luke, we have a near-perfect life. We could not ask for a better dog.
It seemed the Universe wasn’t going to let us get away from Autumn so easily. On the last day of 2013, out for our last walk of the year, we encountered Autumn walking with her terrific foster-mom, Susan K. The timing was perfect. Autumn seemed so happy to see us again and we realized that although we don’t want or need a second dog, we do indeed want and need Autumn. We ran into them again a day or so later. There was talk of other adopters, so we this was our last chance to have her.
During the holidays, we also came to realize that a little disruption could be a good thing. I like change and Mer likes challenges and Autumn might be both. Autumn is a phenomenal fit with us. Though she is a small dog, she’s not a yapper. She adores Luke and emulates him; he’ll be a great role model for her. She’s mostly housebroken and can walk on a leash and sit on command. She’s a small dog with long legs and Luke is a big dog with short legs. Their coloring and face shape are very similar. Their ears are very cool in different ways.
When Autumn came home today, she and Luke ran joyfully in the yard. We’d been concerned that he was at best indifferent to her. We also worried about his well-being, especially trying to keep up with a puppy. Those concerns vanished in play.
But what about my allergic reaction, which consisted of burning hands and hives? Well, my symptoms pre-date Autumn and recurred during her absence. She may contribute to my ailments but she isn’t the sole cause. If I knew Luke was the cause of my difficulties, it wouldn’t change how I feel about him nor would I consider for a moment getting rid of him; the same for Autumn. I’ll work through my issues.
