Ms. BJ & Lucky Dog

When the movie Marley & Me came out, I wanted to see it but didn't because I heard that it was really sad. Well, I finally saw it today and I don't think that I would have been able to watch the movie in the movie theater. It just hit so close to home.

In the beginning, Jennifer Aniston's character, miscarried at 10 weeks ~ the same time that I did before I got pregnant with Katherine. It was the same scenario... excited to be pregnant, go to the doctor only to find out that there wasn't a heartbeat. The only difference was that Jennifer had her husband with her and mine was stuck with a mechanical on a small island near Spain. So, I was by myself hearing the news.

When I got home though, I had BJ. She comforted me through the night and the next two days until Brett got home and took me to the hospital for a D&C. I was devastated. It took a year for me to get pregnant in the first place and now we couldn't even try to get pregnant again until all of the pregnancy hormones were out of my body. I had a partial molar pregnancy. Which means an empty egg was fertilized and my body still thought that it was pregnant. So, I got to go have blood drawn every week for the next 8 weeks ~ not fun.

Little BJ was my rock. She was always there for me when I need a hug or a good cry. It's the unconditional love that dogs give to us. It's amazing.

So... we got through that and low and behold the next time that we "tried", I was pregnant. Throughout my entire pregnancy, little BJ was there for me. I had a really tough time but she was my rock. Crazy as it sounds, she never once jumped up on me (she jumps up on everyone because she is so excited even though she did go to puppy training to train her not to do it) while I was pregnant. I read that dogs can hear the baby's heartbeat.

Thirty five weeks later, little Katherine arrived. We weren't sure how BJ was going to take it since she was our first "baby". She took to it well. BJ is Katherine's "puppy mama". She would not let anyone get in between her and Katherine.

When Katherine was about 6 months old, we walked into PetSmart. There in a corner was a yellow lab giving Brett "puppy dog eyes". We knew that if we ever got another dog, it would have to be a male do. BJ is very much an alpha female.

So, here is this dog waiting to be adopted. If he wasn't going to be adopted that day, he was going to be euthanized. Just as we were going to ask about him, another family took him out of the cage and started walking with him. We thought that our chances were shot. I was kind of happy because I wasn't sure if I wanted to bring a full grown dog into our home with a 6 month old baby. Was that the right thing to do?

Then, the family put the dog back into the cage and walked away. It was a sign for us. We took him out and he was the sweetest dog. So, I ran up to the ATM (they only accepted cash) and we came home with a dog.

We introduced BJ and Lucky (his new name since he was to be euthanized) in our backyard, as much of neutral grounds that we could. They played and played and played. It was a match made in heaven. As for my concern for Katherine... turns out Lucky is her dog. He would sleep next to her crib and she could take anything out of his mouth.

The only problem with Lucky is that he likes to go out on self guided tours. Not so much anymore but when we first got him, he didn't have any tags and somehow got outside and wandered. We have a huge community and our home sits up right against the desert so I thought that there wasn't any hope. I was wrong. Someone saw us search for a dog and they found him. That kept happening time and time again. Every time he got out, we were Lucky to find him.

He has since not tried to escape so much. We think that the poor dog was abused before and so that was his way out and that is all he knew. Now he knows love and knows that it is okay to cuddle.

So, back to Marley & Me... I cried my eyes out. We have the two best dogs in the world that have nothing but love to share and I know that if and when something happens to them, it will be the hardest day in the world for the family. They have brought so much joy and laughter into our lives and it is something that we will never forget.