I am a through and through dog person. The only time in my life that I remember not living with at least one dog lasted about six months. The first six months living with Justin, I got my dog fix at work and by sometimes borrowing my mom’s old dog, Joule, to accompany me on a walk or to hang out with me at the apartment for a few hours when Justin wasn’t there. When many of our friends started adopting dogs and my mom decided to get a puppy, I too needed my own dog. There will be more stories to come about that particular dog, Flint, than you’ll probably care to read, but for today, we’ll focus on the present and the inspiration for the blog name.
The Rookie and Magic Show is my life. Aside from Justin, these are the beings I interact with more than anyone else. Although Justin does help care for them, I am the one primarily responsible for them. I wake up with them and take them out every morning. Magic comes to work with me every day, unless Justin is off or working from home (the latter never happened prior to a year ago). Rook tags along with us almost every Friday. (His fan club doesn’t hold back their disappointment if he misses a week.) As I write this post, Rook is snuggled under a blanket next to me on the couch while Magic watches from the top of the stairs. I spend A LOT of my time with these two nearby.
Hence, the blog name: so much of my day and my life centers around my time with the dogs, it just made sense. It’s also how Justin started referring to their antics when they get excited to wake up, eat, go for a walk, hop in the car, anything a dog finds exhilarating. (Imagine lots of running into furniture and walls, biting, barking and howling with circus music playing in a loop in my head.) The domain name also wasn’t taken, so that helped make the final decision.
A typical day involves 2-3 walks, plus a trip into the yard at bed time. These walks may not happen at exactly the same time every day, but they’re part of my daily pattern, as is feeding them two meals a day and brushing their teeth every night right before I brush my own teeth. I bathe them, clean their ears and trim their nails every other week. We go hiking and to local parks far more often than we would without dogs in our lives. I would have no idea what to do with all of that time without them, nor would I want to have to figure it out. When Flint died, the routine we had established with Rook helped keep me sane in the emptiness that surrounded us and filled our home.
Life with this “pair of idiots” as I lovingly refer to them isn’t always the easiest. I get frustrated with one or the other of them regularly for Rook’s “naughty but nice” character (to borrow phrasing from Absolute Dogs) or Magic’s inability to grasp that she can’t just poop in the dining room or the doctors’ office after she’s been given ample opportunity to take care of that business outdoors. At the end of the day though, they’re each funny and sweet and provide me a sense of comfort. Rook’s soft snoring as he’s pressed against my leg and seeing Magic look up happily at Justin while out on a walk puts a smile on my face faster than almost anything else in the world. I’m so glad to have them as part of my family. As for the trouble they sometimes cause, we’re a work in progress together each and every day.
Until next time…
“A dog is grateful for what is, which I’m finding to be the soundest kind of wisdom and very good theology.” ~ Carrie Newcomer
