Last weekend, I was envisioning writing a blog entry about how to decide how much fuss to make over your child’s birthday. Patrick will be turning two soon and I spent quite a bit of time thinking about what is the proper amount of fuss to make about turning two. Turning one is easy in my opinion because one is a big milestone. The first year is hard and when your child turns one, it seems appropriate to me to have a big celebration.
My thinking was that two is trickier because you are setting a birthday precedent about how to celebrate future birthdays with your children. Also Patrick’s birthday is about seven weeks before Christmas. While I know many children have it much worse in terms of holiday birthdays, I was struggling a little bit with how to plan what gifts he would get for his birthday and what I should save for Christmas
I even took some pictures when I was out at Barnes and Noble last weekend to prove that stores have already moved on to Christmas before Halloween even passed.
In the meantime, while I was pondering this, life happened. The health of our dog Bailey, our 11-year-old lab/ hound mix, deteriorated quickly and she passed away on Halloween. She had been acting like an older dog since her ACL replacement surgery in July, but we had not been expecting this at all.
Here is a picture of her from early October modeling the super hero cape I bought her for Halloween. 
She was a good dog and will be missed. We were lucky to have had eight great years with her. My husband and I adopted her together in September of 2009. Not long after we adopted her, she ran away and it took us 17 days to get her back. The day we got her back was November 3, 2009. We decided that November 3rd would be her birthday and that since the shelter told us that she was between 2-4 years old, that day would be her 3rd birthday.
Before Patrick was born, I thought of her as my baby-dog. After she was born, I thought of her less as my baby and more as a good friend. If we went away on vacation or the holidays and she stayed with my husband’s parents we would request pictures so we knew she was having a good time while we were away. She had a personality where she liked to be cuddled and petted almost constantly and it was hard to see her in pain at the end. She was the kind of dog who always wanted to be with us. Often, when I would blog, I would sit on the floor so I could sit next to her while I was writing.
We are still planning on having a family birthday celebration for Patrick this weekend and I know that we will all enjoy ourselves. I am excited to celebrate this milestone in his life. I can’t help but feel though that I wasted precious time worrying about something that is kind of pointless to worry about. It is a privilege to be even able to throw a party for your child. It is a privilege to have people and animals to share you life with. Bailey helped me to put this in perspective. She is missed and will continue to be missed.
Have your animals helped you put your priorities in perspective?
Katie, I wanted to read this when I had some time to really take it in. Our pets are such special forces in our lives. They represent the purest love, acceptance and intuition that I know of. I was just talking to Estella Leopold about this the other night, and she was saying the same thing about pets. They are love made into fur. I’m so sorry for the loss of Bailey. I’m glad you had 8 good years with him. I’m sure he loved every minute.
Thank you, that means a lot. 🙂