Otis

What a week it has been. This getting back to work full time has really got me wore out early in the evening and I have been just too tired to write recently. I still get up with the dogs at 5:00 am or earlier and we go outside and they do their thing and then the three of them run and chase and play and I quietly sit in my green lounge chair and drink my coffee and smoke my cigarette. I love this time of day. It is so peaceful and calming to just be out among the stars and the moon while most of my world around me is still asleep.

After Otis has finished his business and playing with the young ones, he will come and sit on my feet, all 55 pounds of him and allow me to rub and pet his chin and belly. He is now ten and I worry that we will only have a few more years of this together. He is my big baby and he came into my life when I was at rock bottom.

I had just had a miscarriage with my new husband we had lost our dog Scooby, and my mother-in-law died; all this all took place in a week’s time. I was devastated to say the least, and I desperately needed a “baby” to love and care for. That is when I found Otis, six months old at a shelter in Rhode Island where I lived at the time. He was a God send to me and helped me overcome all the losses I had just been through. If you saw the blog on “in memory of my dog Sandy” we lost last year, you will understand how important Otis is to me. I love him more than I love some people, to be honest, more than I love most people.

I have the new babies as well now Marley and Brook and they are a joy and love in my life, and they are young and so full of life, I guess that is what makes me sad looking at Otis these days, knowing he doesn’t run as fast as he used to, doesn’t play as long as he used to, has the gray hairs around his chin, and rests with me more now verses tearing around the backyard.

I will cherish every moment I have with him; he already gets an extra treat each day, he gets extra attention and hugs and love from me every morning and we spend time just laying on the floor; Otis gets a belly rub and I get the warmth of his love beside me.

My fur-children are a gift from God that I cherish each and every day, and I say thank you to the Lord above every morning for giving me all that I have in my life and an extra special thank you for the gift of Otis.