Happy Anniversary, my Lucy Bella. One year ago, you were a dirty, scruffy, mangy little puppy in a small town shelter. I saw your picture on Petfinder and knew that you were mine. The post was for a Border Collie / Boston Terrier mix and I laughed out loud. I see where they could think it, your small muscular frame and Border Collie markings, and while there’s Terrier in you, it’s definitely not the Boston variety.

So Christine and I drove all the way to Gonzalez, Texas. I asked her to come with me because everyone else was googly eyed over puppies and she was level headed. No interest in dogs. When we got there, two things happened.

1. Christine immediately found a basket of fluffy puppies in the lobby and called Nicole to see if she could take one home. Doh!

2. We found you back in the kennels. Loud, dirty, small-town shelter kennels. You didn’t misrepresent yourself at all. As soon as we let you out, you ran in excited little circles and then went right out the front door. I don’t even think you looked where you were headed.

A smart person would have thought “I live in an apartment, this dog is way too much for me.” But It was a done deal. I decided the first time I saw your picture.

We headed back to Austin, me with my puppy and Christine with hers, a tan and white ball of fluff they named Sierra. We tossed around the idea of “Buttah” because of her coloring, and “Indigo” for you because you managed to find (and eat) a blue crayon I had NO idea was in my car since I hadn’t chauffeured a kid in ages. Great. I’d had you for 42 minutes and I may have already killed you.

But you made it, with a totally normal name to boot.

Happy Anniversary, Lucy Bella. You make me very happy.