I have to share the Bailey story before I post her birthday pics on Sunday. Bailey will be turning 1 on Sunday.
To me Bailey is a special gift. This past February I buried my dad on a Tuesday and my beloved Tank, who was a Pyrenees on a Friday. Tank was 16 mos old and died unexpectantly while I was at work. It seems that he had an undiagnosed congenital heart defect. I got the call at work at 10Am and just walk out of the office and came home. Tank was an extremely special dog- I got him when he was 8 weeks old. We were having our house built at the time and Tank joined us every weekend that we were out on the property getting everything ready for the big move. Tank was my best friend, our protector and a major part of the family, so losing him put me in a major depressed state. I will say that I was able to control the total breakdown until I had him buried in his favorite spot by the creek. For those who have never dug an hole large enough to bury a 120 pound dog, I can personally vouch for the therapeutic benefit. As long as I was digging the hole, in the subfreezing rain, I was fine. I had a mission. Once it was done. I was a complete and total wreck.
The next morning as I was moving about in my fog, our local News station highlighted Bailey as thier morning pup. There was something about her when I saw her on TV. I had not even contemplated another dog and knew nothing about Newfs (she is 1/2) I mentioned to my husband that hey, maybe we should just go and see if she had been adopted. We tossed the idea back and forth and finally decided to make the hour drive into Dallas, just to see. Well she was there, I was surprised since we got there fairly late in the afternoon.
After I picked her up, it was too late, something about puppy breath and her sweet little eyes, she was coming home. Bailey was about 6 weeks old and had never been socialized. She was a hellion. She certainly got me out of the depressed state quite quickly. Bailey is now a wonderfully sweet, extremely smart girl, who actually enjoys me loving on her and holding her.
So in order for Bailey to be a part of my life- I had to lose Tank. Tank is forever in my heart. And my Bailey girl is usually under my feet, or on my bed,which seems to work out well for the two of us.
Bailey is one of many here at the house- but she is special and I am lucky to have her and I am honored to be sharing her first birthday with her this sunday.