Wednesday was Maci's birthday. As you've probably gathered by now, Lauren and I have a borderline unhealthy obsession with our two year old yellow lab pub.
What's not to love? She's my best friend, office-mate, running partner and ski partner, and her incessant need for playtime helped me regain my strength this summer when all I could do was drag myself to the back porch and fling a frisbee for her to catch. More importantly, she's single-handily forced my wife to do a one-eighty in the dog department. Lauren never grew up with dogs, and frankly, she was quite terrified of them when we first met. Now, Maci rides to work on her lap every morning and Lauren has helped more canines (dogs, to the layperson) in the last 18 months than the ASPCA and the Surrey County, VA Police Department combined.
/crickets chirp as obscure, semi-dated Michael Vick joke goes unrecognized.
Sorry about that one. To make it up to you, here's Maci exacting her revenge on the worlds most famous dog-abuser.
Anyhoo, Lauren and I agreed to wake up extra early on the big day so I could take Maci for a climb and ski before work. There was a time when this was a thrice weekly tradition for the pup and I, but this year has seen us head out less than ten times total, so I rationalized this early morning excursion as akin to giving Maci a birthday present.
After coercing a reluctant wife and dog out of bed at 5:30AM, we dropped Lauren off at work and climbed Tiehack, which happens to serve as the backdrop of Lauren's school. If she weren't so tied up with 19 five year olds, she could actually look out her window and see her husband and dog making their way up the easterly facing slopes of the mountain.
After a cold climb and descent, here's a shot of the birthday girl, looking resplendent in her Ruff Wear softshell, her only defense from the 10 degree temps we were greeted with on this fine morning.
From there we were off to the office, where Maci quickly slipped into a deep slumber. She didn't move until 11AM, when I woke her for a walk over to my client's office to pick up some work.
As we walked in the office, Debbie, Kym and Teree -- the three women that run the show for my clients -- greeted Maci with their standard enthusiastic petting and hearty serving of cold cuts. Kym then pointed to the table in the conference room, and belted out a heartfelt "Happy Birthday Maci!"
Atop the table was a decorative box filled with all the treats and toys a puppy could ever ask for. The three ladies came into the room, opened up the box, and put it on the floor for Maci to enjoy.
Again, these are CLIENTS. Not co-workers, not long-time friends, but clients. To take the time to even bother remembering a dog's birthday, let alone showering her with what had to amount to $80 dollars worth of gifts, is an act of kindness bordering on the unbelievable. I mean, how do you put a price on a novelty tongue with a ball attached, so when a playful puppy picks up the ball, this is the result:
And that is what I love most of all -- yes, even more than the skiing -- about life in this town. There's such a strong sense of community; a feeling that people are, as Kym described it as I incessantly thanked her for this display of generosity, "looking out for one another."
Now, I've never been the best guy in the world. I've lied. I've cheated. And like most people, I've killed a homeless man just to see what it was like. But when you're on the receiving end of such a random act of kindness, you can't help but want to pass that along to other people in your life. It feeds off itself, it really does.
And yes, I am wearing the same pants to my client's office that I wore to ski in that morning. Thanks for noticing.
