Today is a very, very special day.  Today, 9 years ago, Ryder was born.  It would take 8 weeks or so before we would meet Ryder and hold her and hug her… and she would romp into our hearts at first glance… but today is the day she was born!

Rydie is a perfect little girl.  She always has been.  She was a tiny Black Labrador puppy who turned into a sleek, shiny, active little girl Black Lab.  Her love for Janie is the stuff of books.  I remember the moment Janie asked if she could have a puppy and bring “it” (she didn’t know anything else but that a Mommy dog was giving birth to a litter of Labs) to our home for awhile before she got her own apartment and finished up her senior year at Brown University…

… but Janie knew that I would be very hesitant to welcome a puppy into our home.  I love dogs.  I love dogs.  I love dogs.  But we had just had the devastating pain of losing our second dog within one year.  Cracker and Carmel.  They were my little boys.  They were brothers.  We had rescued them and raised them.  Cracker had died the year  before at age 12.  Carmel had just died.  My heart was so raw and pained and broken that I couldn’t breathe, never mind let a puppy into that emptiness.  But Janie begged.  She persisted.  Barry and I relented.

On March 23, 2002, Ryder came to live with us.  Janie placed her on our front porch.  I fell in love.  I felt in that instant that both Cracker and Carmel and my childhood doggie Chippy had sent this tiny little beauty with the shiny black coat right onto my front porch.  I melted.

I still melt each time Rydie comes romping into my home.  She is my little girl.  My little buddy.  She has all of her hiding places in my home.  We call her Ryder-the-Hider!  I make sure she has little rugs and pillows in each of her spots.  If she stays overnight, Ryder sleeps with Barry and me.  She has always slept with Barry and me, right from the beginning.  She waits patiently ’til we spread a great big sheet over our bedspread, then she leaps onto the trunk at the foot of the bed and hops onto our bed.  She turns a couple of times and then snuggles into a tiny little ball.  She always finds a way to snuggle right into my legs or Barry’s legs.  She loves us so much and we love her to the moon and beyond.

My  little Rydie… my little birthday girl!  9 years old! Happy Birthday, my lovely little beauty.  Thank you for coming into our lives through your beautiful Mommy, our Janie… and thank you for knowing how much we needed you.  You are joy and happiness and fun and delight and LOVE… every, every moment of every, every day!

I LOVE YOU!