GOTCHA!

My friend Wes has two siblings who were adopted. Over Christmas break a few years ago, when were both in Omaha, wandering around Village Pointe waiting for our friend Aaron to get off call at the Gap (Yes, I said he was on call at the Gap - you know, in case, of a khaki emergency in West Omaha), Wes said, "Oh, tonight is Joseph's Gotcha Day. We're having dinner at a Thai restaurant downtown. Do you want to come?" I loved this concept. His family coming together to commemorate the anniversary of his brother's adoption, just as the would his birthday. It was a momentous day in their family, and it deserved a celebration.

So on Wednesday we will be celebrating our own Gotcha day - it was on September 10 last year that we brought Sully home.

I spent a lot of time on Petfinder.com last summer. It must have been some time in August that I first spotted this hansom devil:

Although there were lots of cute dogs on that Web site, I kept coming back to Sully. I would pull up his picture on the laptop and then dance the screen in front of Ben's face and say, "Don't you want to take me home?" And despite the our rocky first meeting (the first thing Sully did was knock me down to the ground), we decided that was just what we wanted to do.

I wish I had saved Sully's "personal ad." I know it said he liked to play fetch (which is true). I know it said he was a smaller lab (holding steady at 60 lbs). I know it said he needed an indoor home (on some of the bitter cold days this winter when I took him outside, he would just give me a look like, "Seriously?" and then walk right back to the door). But I can't remember if it said anything about what I see as Sully's dominate characteristic - his need for love.

Maybe it did mention he was a lover, but truly, I don't think words can express how much Sully loves love - cuddling, snuggling, kisses, hugs, holding hands (if you think I'm kidding, I'm not). He is the dog who will sit outside the bathroom when I'm in there for 60 seconds and sniff at the bottom of the door as if to say, "I know you're in there, and I love you, and I miss you." And he's the dog who snuggled with me in bed all day when I had the stomach flu, and when I woke up from a nap, even though he had his head on my back the whole time, he greeted me with such joy that you would have thought we were separated for months. This is, above all, what Sully has taught us this past year - all you need is love. You might lose a job, you might have a miserable comps experience, you might eat the cable remote or swallow a sock, but at the end of the day, all you need is the love of the people around you.

There are times when I wonder how Sully, who loves people so much, could have ever been a stray, but I've also chased him in knee high snow, certain that I would never see him again. I've done a lot of chasing this year...in snow, in weeds, in mud, in parks, in lakes, along Merle Hay Road in Des Moines. And every time I'm finally able to grab onto that blue stripped collar, I feel such a sense of relief and sigh, "GOTCHA!" A couple weeks ago, I took Sully to the dog park in Iowa City. Typically, Sully runs wildly around the park, but this time I noticed that while he was still running around, doing his own thing, he never let himself get too far ahead of me. Once he even stopped in tracks, looked around for me, decided he was too far ahead of me, and waited for me to catch up to him. It was as if, after a year of chasing him, he finally got it - he belonged with me, wherever we were going, we were going together; we were, in short, family - GOTCHA!

I know you might think I'm crazy for remembering, let alone celebrating, the day we brought our dog home from the Cedar Rapids Humane Society. But the truth is that this furry goofball has changed our lives. He hasn't always made life easy. More than once in that first month, especially as I spot cleaned carpets, I found myself crying, wondering what on earth I was thinking bringing this creature into our house. And there are things that might be better if Sul was not around - our coffee table would be in better shape, I would not be in a constant battle with the hair on my floors, Ben would not be treating the dead spots on our grass this afternoon. But there would be a lot less laughter in our lives, a lot less cuddling, a lot less love. So on Wednesday, I will probably make Sully some peanut butter dog treats and maybe even take him to the dog park. Then at the end of the day, he and I will cuddle in bed before Ben comes upstairs for the night. As we lie there, I will think about all the unconditional love he has given us this past year, and I will realize that no matter what this dog does - his "runs" through the neighborhood, his pushy methods for getting attention while we work at the computer, his desire to jump on anyone who walks through our front door, I love him unconditionally too. And Sully will put his head on my chest, look at me with those beautiful golden brown eyes, bring his ears forward in that way he knows is adorable, and he'll think to himself, "GOTCHA!"