Happy 1st Birthday Clover!

Today Clover is a year old. It's hard to believe that only 9 months ago Paul and I were driving two hours to Westmoreland TN, to go pick her up. She was 23 lbs then... and now she's over 65 (and still growing). She's the happiest living thing I have ever met. Clover is completely content just sitting next us on the couch, her long, flat, slobbery tongue rolling around in her mouth. Her piercing blue eyes half closed as one of us scratches her ear. Clover often looks at me with this strange expression on her face, as if to say "Hey Momma, I'm happy and I love you." Its almost a little intimidating.

I was talking with Paul the other day about how much she has grown up in the past year. How she has changed so much in her appearance. She isn't a puppy anymore. She a dog. We even had to switch her off the puppy insurance plan to an adult plan with our vet. Its amazing just how much she has changed, and learned in the 9 months we have been her parents. And just how much we have learned from her.

She is so happy to just exist. And maybe its because she's a dog. She has never had to experience being hungry, or cold, or neglected. She hasn't ever had to find her own food or shelter. So maybe that's why, every time I walk in the door after a long day at work, that she waddles up to me to give me a kiss hello and I feel like she's been waiting all day to say, "Hey Momma, I'm happy and I love you." She hasn't had a hard life, she has always been provided for since the day she was born. But what gets me is that I feel like she knows that. It might not make sense to other people.

But I feel like she knows just how much she is loved, and how hard Paul and I work to provide for her and her brother. That we have bad days, and that sometimes things go wrong. Or that we are disappointed by something that has happened at work or in our personal lives. But Clover always seems to know when we have one of those days.

A few months ago I was at Paul's house while he was working. I was doing some house cleaning and needed to bring the vacuum downstairs. On my way down I tripped and fell down the stairs with the 20lb Dyson vacuum cleaner landing on top of me. I was hurt. And I was home alone. I somehow had landed on my neck, and for the first 10 seconds I could not move. I hadn't broken anything, but my body was in shock, I had had the wind knocked out of me. And I was terrified. In those first 10 seconds, I had no idea what to do, but I heard the dogs coming towards me. 

My first though was, that they were going to jump on me and lick my face, to try to get me to play. And that thought scared me even more, because if I really was injured, they, being a combined weight of over +125 lbs could really do some damage. My first instinct was to say "No" and "Go Night Night!" (our command for them to go in their crates). But neither of them listened. Instead they stood over me as I lay on the floor with tears in my eyes from the pain. Clover sniffed my face, and then laid down next to me, curling up under my arm. Axle joining her on my other side. 

I was amazed. My two rambunctious, silly, rowdy dogs that I often have to tell to calm down, were quietly laying next to me on the floor. There was no jumping, no licking, no one was crawling on top of me. I was completely shocked. How did they know to do that? They had never been faced with this kind of situation before. Clover had never seen me get hurt or fall. How did she know at they exact moment to deter from her normal happy, bouncy behavior and be completely calm? 

After about five minutes of laying on the floor, I had finally collected myself enough to try and get up. I was ok for the most part. I ended up with a big nasty bruise and rug burns down my neck and back, a bad headache and was sore for the next week. But I was ok. I was completely perplexed by the behavior of my (at the time) nine month old puppy. To this day, I still don't know how she knew I was hurt. She knows how to 'lie down' but it usually takes quite a bit of coaxing, and a cookie for her to complete that task. 

So how did she know, without me telling her, to just lie down next to me and be so still? I guess I will never know. But I am thankful for her. Every day that I get to spend with my crazy, wild, fluffy girl is wonderful. She makes me laugh and smile with every kiss, and bow, and bark. And maybe I'm too attached to my dogs. Some people may read this and think that I'm personifying them, or just believing what I want to. But when I fell, and was laying on the floor alone, and Clover acted 100% different than what I would have expected from her, it was a little eye opening.

Almost as if this was her way of giving back for everything I have done for her. This was her way of protecting me. She didn't save me from a burning building, She didn't some how knock the phone off the counter and call 911, and she didn't crash through the window to go and alert the neighbors. But she did show me that she knows more than I thought she did. At 9 months old, she knew to alter her behavior to help me when I really needed it. 

I really believe that this was her way of telling me once again, "Hey Momma, I'm happy and I love you." 

Happy Birthday Clover, I'm happy and I love you too.

 A very special thank you to the See Spot Eat Bakery in Nashville Tn for making Clover's amazing Birthday cake!! You guys are awesome!