Your long-awaited first baby comes home and the spoiling begins immediately. You fill your days with cuddles, long walks, warm baths, and food on demand.
You become your little love’s paparazzi as you memorize each adorable wrinkle and document each yawn.
Your heart grows a few sizes as you experience this unconditional love that you didn’t really fully understand. Until now.
You don’t even mind the drool or poop as you’re too busy falling in love, because you were a dog mom first.
Whenever you’re apart, you yearn to be together again. This new little love was a missing piece to your heart that you may not have even known was missing.
You spend your days devoted to making your dog happy, because you know your dog is doing the same for you.
Life is good.
And then some amount of time passes and a new baby enters the family.
But, as similar as these babies are, they are so different.
Your priorities shift to meet the needs of this fresh, screaming human baby.
Because they have to. And, your first baby? She understands.
She watches. She figures out this new life. It may take her some time to accept. But, she knows.
She keeps loving her family. She understands when her meals are late.
She knows her walks won’t be daily anymore.
She isn’t the star. But she knows the importance of her new role.
Perhaps it’s even more important, she thinks to herself.
She watches the new human. She keeps the baby safe. She knows how much her parents need her unconditional love. She can tell that now, more than ever before, some days are heavy for them.
She notices she gets yelled at more. She’s learning new rules about this baby human. She knows her parents love them both.
She’s left outside a little longer. She understands.
She never doubts how much her humans love her.
She knows they need her. She feels the depths of their love, even while she’s waiting for her water bowl refill.
And now, life is great.
Many moons pass, and it’s now time to put your first baby down for a final rest.
Your heart is shattered. Saying goodbye to unconditional love is a pain felt deep within the depths of your soul.
You sob looking at pictures of your fur baby. “I was just a baby myself,” you think to yourself. You were a dog mom first.
“How can I be an adult without her? Without her love?”
And then some guilt settles in.
“Did I do enough for her when the kids were born?” “Did she know how much I loved her?”
Yes. And Yes.
You were her world. She felt your love, regardless of how busy life became.
She understood. She loved you for you. You were always enough in her eyes.
Even on your worst days, she forgave you and she loved you.
She was happy to trade in her days and time as a spoiled only-child for the chance to love her new human babies.
Unconditional love is forever. Your bond is forever.