An iconic start to a blog post, I know.
My dog is rarely excited. She’s a calm soul with a bit of an attitude. But excitement is not something that comes to her often. Yesterday was one of a handful of times I’ve seen her express excitement. By far, this was the most excited I had seen her. Honourable mentions would be when she gifted herself an empty egg carton off the kitchen counter, followed by the realization that someone (and by someone, I mean me) has opened a bag of chips. But yesterday we entered brand new territory. I walked into the house with a handful of grocery bags and greeted my girl. As she nosed around in the new purchases (I assume checking my grocery buying abilities) and because I am sadly limited to only having two hands, I made my way back to the car to grab a very important final item: the watermelon. Now, I love a good watermelon as much as (possibly more than) the next girlie, and I had hand selected the most delectable looking clearance watermelon I could find. But nothing could hold a candle to the excitement that was waiting behind that door.
As I walked through the front door holding my prize, I saw two brown eyes grow about five times too big. As she barreled towards the giant green sphere in my hands, it dawned on me: this dog has never seen a watermelon. Ever. And so I did as any responsible dog owner would, and I sat the three of us down in the kitchen to marvel at this magical green ball. Now, based on our experiences with new fruits in the past (I’m looking at you blueberry), I was prepared for an almighty STOMP. But to my surprise, she laid down on the kitchen floor and rolled around as our new friend watermelon rolled around with her. In that moment, I forgot everything that had happened that day, that week, and whatever had to happen for the rest of my life. I heard myself say “this is one of my favourite moments of my life so far.” It was one of those moments that will never happen again but that your heart will remember for the rest of your life. Moments like that are what make life worth living, as silly as they are. There aren’t many moments like that in life and even as I write this, I think of how lucky I am to have gotten to have that one.