It never ceases to amaze me that no matter how difficult things can seem, Tierney can give me just a look with her big sweet brown eyes, a nudge on the leg with her long nose or a hit with her ball as she tosses it to me to play and, in an instant, my world flips right side up again and all the weight on my shoulders is lifted! I often stop to reflect when I'm around her as to just how truly lucky I am to have gotten another wonderful ball of Shepherd joy! After Brear died I couldn't imagine ever loving a dog the same way in which I loved her! I thought, at the time, that Tier would be a good distraction! I thought she'd help fill in a void that would probably never fully go away! I had expectations for a nice life with my new shepherd but nothing too terribly spectacular! Yet, here I am writing another blog post about this big beautiful shepherd that has far and away surpassed any and all expectations, wants, hopes, and dreams I could have ever had for a dog!
She embodies the true meaning of complete unconditional love and loyalty without any expectations attached! She doles out exponential quantities of love to Andrew and me any and every chance she gets for no other reason than the fact that she's Tierney and that's just the way she operates! In addition to her much needed love this week after such hectic days, I was reminded again on Wednesday night of how much she truly loves us....
Wednesday nights are group run nights. A bunch of runners meet at our local running store, Runner's Roost, and run for 4-6 miles around the store. I've been going to run group for about 3 years now and have been taking my dogs since I started. Yes, that's right, all my running friends ran with Brear on many occasions! This week it was just my dad and me since Andrew has been gone and considering how dark it's been getting, I decided that Tier should go with us to ensure our safety out on the dark roads. My mom took Lana and Quinn, my parent's dog, to the dog park while we ran. Being a little late, we had to try to catch up to all the runners in front of us. Tierney, who hadn't been running for a couple days, was beyond thrilled to be out on the road trotting along in front of me! What happened next was just so typical Tier....every single runner we came upon she needed to see if maybe, just maybe, it was her favorite guy in the world! She searched and searched as we ran for her absent human! And, as we ran along through the crisp cool night I watched as the anticipation would build within her as we approached another runner, how she would start prancing as we approached, hopeful to find the dad she has been missing so much! As we moved along over the next four miles with Tierney constantly searching, I thought about the last two years with this beautiful girl - how much love she has given me, how she accepted Andrew into her life like he'd been there all along, how she brings laughter to our lives on a daily basis, how she protects Lana from any sort of danger that may befall her, how she is loyal to a default but mostly I thought about how incredibly lucky I am to have been blessed with another crazy, beautiful, joyful, wonderful shepherd! I often think, if only we could all love with the same unconditional capacity of a dog, how different this city, state, nation, world would be! But, alas, this divine gift has been imparted to the dog, leaving me to wonder in amazement at how they they never falter in their issuance of unconditional love to their humans! And, I am left with the hope and dream of someday being able to love those in my life in a truly unconditional way, the way in which my shepherd loves me!
Anyway, and it's anyway not anyways according to my mother, the flight is about to land and I must sign off now. Until next time friends, enjoy the beautiful fall weather and as you meander through this crazy thing called life, may you always be reminded of the gifts in which you've been blessed and continually strive to love those around you with the same sort of devotion and understanding of a dog! And, to that big girl in the sky, "I miss you daily, I think about you often, you're never far from my mind and you're always, always in my heart!! I love you, Brear!!!"
CiAo,
ThE sHeP & sHaN
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