I generally don't make both a birthday thread and a gotcha day thread anymore, and I know I haven't been around much to comment on others' special days and photos, but I had to stop in to make a thread for my little blackbird, Raven. It was more than "just" a gotcha day, it was the day I started really living again, and looking forward instead of back.
There was not an actual physical death in my life, but nonetheless my life as I knew it, my hopes and dreams and all I had known were just as surely dead with the ending of my marriage. My soul was crying out for hope, something to help me look forward again. And I was gently led to Raven. From a sudden desire to browse Petfinder that day to the compelling urge to drive to the shelter to the wandering into "kennel room B" rather than the puppy room, and there she was. Bright eyes, furiously wagging tail, cute button ears, my hope and renewal in this little black bundle. And home she came with me, nestled in my lap, giving puppy sighs and grumbles of contentment as she slept, rain gently pattering on the windshield. In three short months, I would learn she needed me just as desperately as I needed her, in her battle for survival against cancer. Two days always stand out so clearly in my mind, every detail etched in my mind forever. The day she came home with me from the shelter, and the day she came home with me after her jaw surgery.
She got me back out in the world again, brought laughter back in my life, brought a renewed sense of purpose. She was mine: My decision, my adoption, my baby. And she always will be my bright and happy Raven, proving there's joy to be found in even the darkest hours. Thank you for coming into my life, little girl.
Homecoming video
I've posted this before, but this is the slideshow I made for her after I had had her a couple months: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4n28cp3-IJ0
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Huney, Bon & Simba-missed so very much
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