Time just goes by, doesn’t it? After posting the last update, last November, I felt a little weird about posting pictures of our new babies on Nesta’s blog, so I didn’t. And I haven’t visited this blog since then. But time heals and I have realized many things over the past year. One is that I feel Nesta certainly had a hand in the picking out these two new babies that we came into our lives so soon after his passing. While my relationship with Nesta can never be replicated, these two new dogs have helped me so much through the process of healing. And interestingly, I have developed in my mind, connections between my new dogs and Nesta. For one, the bernese mountain dog is the dog I always wanted, even before Nesta. My friend’s mom breeds them. She was given to me about a month after Nesta passed, in October 2013, she was 2.5 years old, born on Christmas eve, 2010. So she was alive when Nesta was alive, living at the farm, waiting patiently for the day I would arrive and take her home. I think about what Nest and I were doing on her birthday, Dec. 24, 2010. We were snowshoeing in the backcountry of beautiful Steamboat Springs, CO. Something I just know Delilah would have LOVED!! I only wish she and Nesta could have been friends during the 2.5 years they shared the same time on Earth. I think they would have loved each other. So I believe Nesta led me to my friend’s farm, to bring Delilah home from the small fenced in square she has been living in. He knew she was my destiny.
One the other hand, while Nesta was bearing his last few days on Earth, he sensed another close-by puppy in need. This puppy was born eight days before Nesta passed. So they too, shared some of the same time on Earth. He was an “accident” born under a house whose mother was a sweet and crippled Rottweiler. Eventually these pups would need homes, as the owner of the house could not take care of mom, dad and 7 puppies. Kyle and I took charge and found homes for 4 of them, including ours, and sent the other three away to a trustworthy rescue organization. I hope those pups found loving homes. I know Nesta wanted us to save one, their birthdays were 2 days apart. I enjoy comparing what I was doing in 2004 when Nesta was a year old, compared to what I am doing 10 years later when Woody is a year old. We were doing different things, and they have pretty different personalities. I learned SO much from Nesta. I am thankful everyday for that time in my life.
Then, about two weeks after we got the new dogs, a stray kitten came into our lives. Completely unexpected, this kitten found us. This kitten who had been looking for a home, meowing at every doorstep, saw us walking the dogs on a cold night in November. He ran to us, rubbed against the dogs’ legs, and then followed us home. The rest is history. Crazy to acquire three new animals in less than a month, but that’s the way it happened. Our hearts were wide open thanks to the love from Nesta, my first, and Tahoe and Sierra, Kyle’s firsts. This is our first cat, he is really a sweet heart. SO without further ado, meet Woody the Rottweiler mix, Delilah the Bernese Mountain Girl, and Milky the cat.
