The Boy

Tis the season! Facebook Memories have been reminding me this is the time of year I share an extraordinarily ordinary task that Chance has completed. Licking out the peanut butter jar, sitting on a basket because he has figured out he has back legs, the perfect 2o2o from the couch, catching birds mid-flight, climbing on the kitchen table because chiro makes him feel so much better….9 wonderful years of beautiful ordinary.

This year’s superbly ordinary is how Chance takes care of me.

I like to believe he knew he picked at pieces of my heart until I didn’t know how much space he occupied.

I like to believe he knew he would have to do the hard work.

I like to believe he knew I am not as strong as I appear.

In the end, Chance did things his way. He always did.

He would greet me in the morning by jumping up to put his paws on my shoulders and get a full body scrub. He would run the backyard roo-rooing to anything and everyone. If Chance was up, so were you! He would eat (and why would anyone think something is wrong with their dog if he was eating?!). He would play with the dog we were watching for the weekend.

And just as I was lulled into a false sense of security that this was another ordinary day, Chance would wander off on his own path to follow the sunset, a butterfly, or something that smelled really good!

Everyone said not to take ‘that one’. All the signs were there for his neurological issues, no future in dog sports, and the potential for him not to be functional in a social setting was at a maximum. (Thanks for thinking we were remotely prepared for this Laurie!)

That’s probably what makes every ordinary extraordinary with Chance. With the deck stacked against him, every success was that much sweeter. I am stupid proud of all his titles. And I kick myself for not getting a photo of him surrounded by all that bling.

Truthfully, he could have sat on the couch eating bon bons for 9 years and I couldn’t be more proud of him.

But more than anything, I am so proud that misfit goober found the perfect fit in our dysfunctional family.

He was my boy.



Chance, Got my 2nd

June 16, 2013 – August 13, 2022