Friday was an unimaginable day for me!  It is the day that I got to share in just a SMALL piece of the joy that someone encounters on the very first day that they bring their new life partner home with them! This is the culmination of a Sugar Babies journey!

Whelping homes don’t often get to see the results of the litter they raised up close; rather, they get to hear about it from a distance, watching the journey from afar and seeing the pups we’ve loved from the moment they were born growing into the dogs we dream of and changing the lives of others in ways we can’t POSSIBLY imagine as hard as we might try. We hear bits and pieces, we watch facebook posts to see how they are doing, and we catch glimpses of them as they grow if we are lucky.

For me, the L litter gave me more opportunities than I could have ever hoped for in following their journey!  I heard the stories while they were in the prison program and got to meet their inmate handlers; I got to see them with their puppy raisers and long-term fosters while they were in training, I got to say hi to them on occasion and give them some love from their whelping mom-and I watched their journeys unfold.

One was career changed and gets to live a wonderful life with a family that loves him; One is in the breeding program and hopefully one day very soon we will hear that she will be a mama herself; two are currently in final training locally; two are in other programs (Canada and California) and will hopefully be finishing up their formal training soon; and ONE of them is going home with his forever person TODAY! He’s made the long journey, he’s passed the tests along the way, and he’s ready to start the journey of his lifetime!

Today is the most special of days that rarely we get to experience-but when all of the stars align and if you are exceedingly fortunate you get a glimpse into what the once little ball of fur that couldn’t see or hear gets to do change the world! This is the day that makes the work, the time, the stress, the sleepless nights, the endless laundry, the weeks of no life, the brain exhaustion, the challenges, the illnesses, the vet appointments, surgeries, emergencies, and everything else just melt away as if it never existed for those who volunteer to help bring assistance puppies to their final life point! Breeding fosters, Whelping homes, Great Starts, Puppy Raisers, long-term Fosters, Prison Programs, and all of the volunteers in between!

Down the road there’s a graduation-but that is months after the dog is placed.  TODAY is when everything culminates into that PERFECT combination and you can FEEL the earth shift on its axis almost.  You KNOW that this dog will change the course of their person’s life, of that there’s no doubt!  It’s NOW, it’s HERE, it’s TODAY, and it’s AMAZING.

Love comes in many shapes and sizes-but this kind of love, commitment, bond, and energy supersedes the love we talk about in general terms.  THIS dog, THIS person, THIS moment…..

The pages of the past have been written, but the pages of the future hold no bounds.  The journey isn’t always a straight one; but with time, energy, hope, and a little bit of faith it is a journey worth having!  Sometimes we don’t know how we arrived at this place, and sometimes we’ve had to endure a bit of sadness and disappointment.  But then we look at where we are and we can’t imagine not having this moment that is presenting itself right in front of us, waiting for us to seize it and run with it full of joy and laughter.