30. The Decade Dog

As the saying goes, "Man plans, God laughs".  If owning border collies for 10 years has taught me anything, it’s that there is beauty in chaos. 

Today, my first dog turns ten.

When I was first thinking about getting a dog, before I knew that dog was Target, he was my "supposed to" dog. 

He was supposed to be from a tried-and-true border collie breeder, well known in the industry, and his parents’ health and temperament tested. He was supposed to be black and white, and he was supposed to come home in March.

At the time, I thought I was doing close to all these things, but as it turns out that these things that were "supposed to" happen. Didn't.

We were supposed to become real competitors. Agility, Obedience, Free-style, you name it. I had a smart dog and my smart dog, and I were going to do it all. That's not to say that Target isn't intelligent. He's intelligent enough to know that he doesn't, necessarily, have to listen to me all the time and if he doesn't look at me, he has an excuse. After all, “deaf and not looking, can't get mad", right?

Target was going to be there, front and center, next to me, when I got married. I was going to take wedding pictures, just him and I. His brother and my groom would come after the bond Target and I share was captured, on a day that centers around love, family and bonds.

 Target was going to be the dog I brought my babies home to and told stories about when my kids were older.

Since I'm writing this out and not talking about it, I can imagine that this list sounds sad, because none of these things came to pass.

But, as the saying goes, "Man plans, God laughs".  If owning border collies for 10 years has taught me anything, it’s that there is beauty in chaos.

Target was very well socialized in his younger years. He came with me to work, we frequented many dog parks, he would go up to people in the street and check their pockets for treats.

 At some point he decided he'd had enough. Dog parks overwhelm him and people walking through the park with umbrellas or flapping coats scare him. Over the years, the stress it put on him when I tried to force him to have dog friends, outweighed any relationships he made.  As it turned out, even when he made dog-friends, he could take or leave them at will.  He had Comet at home.  Who needs strangers when you have a brother? I had to accept that we were never going to be Dog Park Popular. As a human, who was well socialized young and enjoy my alone time as an adult, I was disappointed, but I understood.

A lady, at a now closed, daycare business told me that Target is a handful because he's spoiled. 

We never went back there.

The only thing I could think was 

"OK? As opposed to what?".

(This leads to other questions, such as I’m spoiled, too. Does that make me a handful)

As time went on, things were crossed off my list of "supposed to" 's. They just weren't going to happen for one reason or another.  We learned our signs together, so I could talk to my best friend (and partially because some of it is funny stuff)

Some of the plans were harder to let go of than others.  It still felt like I was coming out on top, because I had Target (and Comet, but we’re focusing on the Man of the Hour here 😉)

When losing things on that list of plans broke my heart and it was hard to trust the world with it, Target became my safe place to keep my heart. He always shows up for me, even if showing up for me means he has to wear a silly costume. He just makes sure that I, (and absolutely everybody else), knows that he's doing it under passive protest.

 Other people say they trust their dogs with small children, their food, in stores, and the list goes on and on; I can trust that Target won't tolerate nonsense. It might shock you (or maybe not, depending on how well you know me), but I prefer it. It does get tiresome when his perception of nonsense includes bears on coffee tables in commercials or my boyfriend dancing in the kitchen, but it's good to know that the creature that protects your heart acts with discretion.

Over this decade, Target has become so much more than what I expected him to be. He's cool and funny. He's smarter than he has any business being (I'm not too ashamed to admit it, he's smarter than me sometimes).  While I love him for who he is on the inside, and I’m a bias observer, he is strikingly handsome.  He runs laps around the pool when we swim in the summer and barks at the birds in our backyard.  The hummingbirds buzz around his face because they love him and he hides behind me because the feeling isn’t mutual.

10 months into being his mom, I had no issues becoming a dog-mom to his brother and since day one, Target has been the best big brother.

It might sound sentimental or trite, but even though our journey has been full of ups and downs, nothing went as it was "supposed to", I wouldn't change our story for anything.

Happy 10th Birthday to my "Supposed To" Dog, you're so much more than I could have ever planned you to be.