Thankful Thursday

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So, this is definitely a different sort of thankful thursday blog, but relevant nonetheless. I am thankful for our 4.5 year old pitbull mix, Kaily. Meg and I knew we wanted a dog in our lives since we both were born and raised with them. Four years ago, we went to a local place that rescues dogs; We found a fantastic dog, but immediately found out it was spoken for. It was late in the day, I was hungry and just wanted to go home. Meg suggested we stop by the pound on Western avenue about 5 city miles from where we were. Reluctantly I agreed. This is the city pound folks, the care pretty nice, but they euthanize the dogs if they are not rescued. We toured the facility and saw some interesting dogs. Nothing stood out. We were about to call it a night when we both noticed a cage off to the side. We looked in and there was this pretty little puppy in there, tag wagging and just staring at us. We took her outside and the debate began.

We both fell in love with the dog named Xena immediately. We wanted to make sure we were ready....back and forth, back and forth and we decided she was the one. We actually had to undergo some stringent interviews to confirm we were not going to train her to fight. Of course we passed, despite a Chicago bear trying to get her before us. A few days later, we took her home and so our journey began.

I assume by now that a lot of you have read Marley and me. We changed Xena's name to Kaily, a good irish girl. Kaily is our Marley. She is the sweetest dog in the world, but definitely has some idiosyncrasies. She is a 55 pound dog who acts like a lap dog. She will jump up in our laps like it is nothing! She drinks water too fast and throws it up all the time. She eats Riley's toys if she can get her paws on them and gets needy if we ignore her!

She is amazing around children. Kaily loves kisses and kisses Riley and Luke all of the time. Kaily, like Riley, can make a bad day great. I know firsthand as Kaily comes to my office everyday. I am very lucky to own my business so Kaily and I really get to hang everyday. I can be having the worst day and I look over and hear Kaily snoring and I cannot help but smile. Talk about unconditional love, Kaily is the best. There is a reason that the National Cancer Institute brings in dogs to the pediatric kids fighting cancer. I remember when I was going through treatment and the dogs came in...The entire attitude of the floor changed. Dogs can make your shitty day, an amazing one; regardless of what kind of stuff you are dealing with. Morale and dogs= increased morale. I promise.

4.5 years and I cannot imagine our lives without Kaily. I am excited for Riley to grow up with Kaily around. Kaily is definitely part of our family and I would be absolutely devasted if anything ever happened to her. It is crazy, we basically spend 365 days a year together and we can tell each other moods. It is very hard to explain, but those people who have pets, know what I am talking about. Kaily is definitely a part of our family and we are lucky to have such a cute, well behaved, and loyal dog. Kaily knows what it means to LiveSTRONG!