Meet the love bug of my life.  Well, besides my girls and hubby.  Rocky came to me a few years ago, after much persuading (no, pleading, harassing, guilt-ing) hubby into the idea of having a dog. Hubby and I are opposites in a lot of ways, which I’m sure you’ll see with more of these “life behind the lens” posts.  In this case, he LOVES cats. Has always loved cats, and I have always loved dogs.
If you follow the Law of Attraction philosophy, you’ll know that the more you focus on something with positive expectation, the more likely you are to actually get it.  I wrote out the list of what I wanted in my ideal dog. He had to be quite similar to the dog I had from seventh grade to college—Hooper.  Don’t blame me, I didn’t pick his name, my brother did, since he was an obsessive basketball player and loved the movie.
I had my list, I knew what I was looking for, and I went looking for him.  I looked at every shelter, the Petfinder website, adoption faires at the pet stores nearby. Finally one day, my youngest daughter, Tatum—a dog person from birth–and I were shopping and happened upon the German Shepherd Rescue group holding an adoption faire.  I had a good feeling…we checked out all the dogs there. Nope, he wasn’t there. I asked one of the volunteers if all the dogs were there. She gave me the link to the Owner Surrender Page of the website.
We got home and immediately opened the page. I went through the pictures…nope, that one is a female…that one has too much slope in his back—I lost Hooper to hip dysplasia. Not fun. That one is too young…that one chases cats….

Then, there HE was! Funky ears, cute Egyptian lined eyes. Big feet. His story was perfect. His owner, Jeanine, took him from his prior owner, who received him as a gift. Hey, as an aside, do not give animals as a gift unless the giftee has requested it!! She took him in, trained him, got him vet care and held out the hope that his perfect owner would show up.

We both worked the Law of Attraction, whether intentionally, as I did, or unconsciously, as she did. No matter, the result was the same. The day we met each other at the dog park, we knew it was perfect. It was love at first sight for me, the dog and my girls, even Tara, who is a definite cat person!

A few days later, Jeanine brought Rocky to our house and he “met” hubby. Hubby asked me what I was waiting for, why didn’t I just take him—he was PERFECT. I said I wanted him to say yes too. Yes, he’s ours.

He loves and protects our cats, Prince and Lulu, who you will meet here later, adores the girls, loves nothing more than going for rides in the car and chasing squirrels at the “Mountain House”. He loves meeting clients and hanging out in the studio while I clean up and in my office, on my feet, while I edit. Just heart on four legs, exactly what I asked for!