Ode to a dog

We got Bayleigh at 8 weeks old. We were living in Charlottesville at the time, so hopefully you can blame the posh spelling of her name on that--me compensating for some socialite insecurity I had while living among the high-end students at UVA. :-) Anyway, she will turn 11 years on Christmas Eve. And so she has been a part of our lives for a decade. I'll be honest, I remember sitting on the couch when I was pregnant with Michaela and gazing lovingly at our dog laying peacefully near my swollen feet and thinking, with misty eyes, that I didn't ever want Bayleigh to feel neglected with the arrival of a baby. Those deep sentiments faded fairly swiftly a midst the joy and strain of surviving the first year with our first born. And that sentiment has faded, in varying degrees, as we have moved from place to place. And there have been days, in the past decade, when one more living thing to care for has put me perilously close to the edge, but Bayleigh has proved resilient and faithful and (mostly) ignorant of the neglects that she has had to endure. During our recent stint at the Regent University apartments she lived a year with my parents and then a year with a dear friend, and so we have only had her back in our lives for 3 months after living without her for 2 years. It has been a happy reunion. This furry friend has, yes, added to the debris in our vacuum, but has contributed 99% positively to our current quality of life. She is so patient and such a companion for my girls. They dote on her and she placidly agrees with their schemes. She barks only at the right times to ensure my feelings that our house is being looked after and we have leather couches which we (gasp!) let her sleep on in her old age. She also has managed to quell the generic dog-fears of a number of children we've had over, which is a pretty worthy accomplishment in my opinion. I'm so grateful for her presence with us at this time and have loved the conversation piece that she inevitably becomes whenever she's out and about with us. That dynamic is something I love about kids and dogs alike, they give a neutral ground for conversations with neighbors we are trying to get to know and strangers walking by on the beach. So many more people do want to talk to each other, I feel, we just get stuck so easily. Guileless youngsters and canines aren't easily stuck. It's great fun to watch it unfold.

And so, Bay-lo, thanks for doing life with us. You're a star.