Comforts

So often, we take things for granted.  We take people in our lives for granted, opportunities, time, money, happiness.  Then suddenly, we lose one of those people or things, and we realize how amazing it was to have that person/thing in our lives.  We constantly see others lose these things, or lose a loved one, and try to use it as a reminder to be grateful, while secretly thinking we're immune from that happening to us.

Often, I take Tessa for granted.  I complain about her barking or pestering when she's excited to play, or that she needs to be walked at an inopportune time for me, or that she rips up a piece of newspaper when we're gone.  She's eaten the blinds before and she costs us a lot of money to repair things like that, along with costing a lot at the vet.

This morning I woke up very early and took my car to get an oil change and countless other tune-up items done to my car.  I came home, excited to see her little face when I walked through the door.  I opened it and called her name, and realized how stupid I was to do that.  I knew Ian was taking her with him this morning for her to visit her grandma for the weekend.  But I realized then and there how much I take her for granted.

I am now sitting here writing before I read some more for school, and I can't help but feel the emptiness in the house now that she's not here.  Normally, we drop her off on our way out of town so I never am home without her.  But just now, as I heard something behind our house, I felt scared without her here to go investigate the source of the noise with me.  She provides such comfort, safety, and love.  She constantly greets me with the same level of excitement whether I've been gone for 5 minutes or 5 hours.  When I was sick the last week, she took naps with me and would just come and lay next to me, knowing that something wasn't quite right.  And tonight, when I go to sleep, I'll remember just how lucky we are to have her in our lives - (almost) always bringing a smile to our faces.  And on Monday when she comes back home from her vacation at Grandma's, I'll be thrilled to have her home!  How pitiful, that dog has us wrapped around her paw!

Here are a couple of really old pictures of us - we had had her for just 2 days!