Thoughts on a Year

This weekend marks one full year of showing and competing with Bolt.

Really? Really.

In some ways, I feel like the time has (to be cliche) flown by- in the blink of an eye. At the same time though, I feel like he and I have been a team for so much longer. I’m lucky with that, and I know it. Bolt is a deep soul. He is goofy, he is funny, he smiles (a lot, if you hadn’t noticed). He has the best energy about him than any dog I have ever been lucky enough to live with or spend any real amount of time with. Never mind train, compete and share awesome adventures with. He has incredibly intelligent eyes. He’s sensitive. He knows when I’m upset. He knows when I need to laugh & when I need to cry. I can’t help but be totally in love with him. I have my heart dog– a thought that is both incredible and terrifying.

Incredible is the obvious. Terrifying is harder to explain.

My greatest fear about getting a puppy was that I would not do justice to the him. That we might not be compatible. That I might face some of the issues I’ve had to work through with other dogs. What if I couldn’t work through them? What if I made a mistake? What if things don’t work out? I do a lot of worrying, if you couldn’t tell. I had wonderful guidance when the time came to get my next puppy. Everything felt “right” about it. I had no reservations. No panic attacks came. The fears I had didn’t disappear, but they quieted down. A lot.

I think this has been one of the most valuable years in terms of experience I’ve had in agility, probably life in general too. I still have fears– it would be unhealthy without them. But I can honestly say that more than anything esle I’m really excited for everything coming our way. I made this blog as an attempt to follow some of our adventures. This first year has been incredibly exciting, and I’d like to think that we have many, many, many more to follow.

We have many more mountains to climb, beaches to run, places to see, dinosaurs to find, friends to meet, cities (countries?) to explore & agility to play, of course.
This life is beautiful.