I ♥ Faces: Pets

Here is my baby. My love. My joy. My boo boo.

His barking gives me headaches. His 'accidents' ruin my carpet {just laziness}. His specialty dog food cost an arm and a leg {food snob}. He can't control his gas {bad manners}. He's a crafty escape artist. Sometimes he a grouch {all the time}. He only does tricks when there is a treat involved.

A couple of Januarys ago we had a terrible kitchen fire. The firefighters opened doors at both ends of the house to let the smoke escape. In the chaos of the night, Jackson ran away. The moment we knew he was gone, the fire took a backseat to his absence.

It was a couple degrees above freezing and we knew his 5 lbs. body probably wouldn't last the night. Frantic, we drove slowly up and down the streets of our neighborhood for hours. In my head, I knew he was gone. But in my heart, I never gave up hope.

In between the yelling and my crying my husband heard a tiny jingle coming from a large field. Immediately he recognized it as the sound of Jack's tags on his collar {we will never buy a tag silencer}. He called out once more and Jackson came running our way, freezing and terrified. I didn't know what happy was until that moment.

His gas may knock me out. But he's home. And that trumps everything else.

Check out other boo-boos at I ♥ Faces.