Rufus Comes Home

We're always late...always! It's impossible for us to be on time..but you can bet we were on time on February 7, 2008. That was Rufus Day...the day we finally brought our new puppy home. The day I hoped the house would stop feeling cold and empty.

We arrived at Vicki's promptly at 11. We were there at exactly 11 a.m. because we had actually arrived at 10:30 and parked down the road, waiting until the designated time. We were pathetic! I tried to appear calm and cool but I'm pretty sure Vicki saw through the act...I was Jello on the inside. We sat in her living room as she went through a binder full of information with us. Vaccination schedules, food options, puppy training classes. I didn't hear any of it! My brain kept screaming..."Uh huh...very nice...GO GET OUR PUPPY". Finally after what seemed like hours, Vicki said..."So I'll go get him"...."What did she say," I thought, "Go get him?" Finally!!! Steve and I stood together in silence...waiting. I heard Vicki's footsteps on the wooden stairs as she came back upstairs. The basement door opened...a light shone from the heavens and angels sang, Hallelujah! There he was..our Rufus....the light coloured puppy (remember in yesterday's post I said I didn't want the light puppy?)...did I care at that moment? No! He was the most beautiful sight in the world to me Vicki walked over and handed him to me. I gathered him in my arms and held him tight, drinking in that luscious puppy smell. I buried my face in his neck and I cried. He pulled away and looked right into my eyes...we connected at that very second, my Rufus and I. He knew I needed him. He knew he had a job to do. He saw a heart that had been broken and he knew he had to mend it. There right on the spot, I felt my heart healing..the pieces that had been shattered by the loss of Shamaya were fitting themselves back together. I looked at Steve and he had tears in his eyes....he knew what had just happened. He knew he had helped to put the joy back in my heart. I will be forever grateful to my husband for putting my needs over his own fear of loving and losing yet another friend. He knew he would have to go through that pain again some time in the distant future when we lay Rufus to rest but he was willing to do it all again so I could have a dog. That's love, folks!

On the drive home Rufus looked out the window and watched as his big new world zoomed past him.  Finally we arrived home..and a new chapter of our lives began. The chapter I like to call "The Golden Years"...get it? Within minutes of arriving home with Rufus we noticed something changed...the house warmed up. It was filled with sounds and smells of puppy again...it was filled with puppy love!

And they called it...Puppy Love