thank you for breaking the chains

 Our heartfelt thanks

Thank you, thank you, thank you for such a warm welcome home and the gifts that are of this blogging community.  I am continuing to improve and being surrounded by so much furry and human love is speeding the process up ten fold.  It is so wonderful to be home and I can't thank you enough for all of you just being there.  Whether it is in a time of need or just a regular day in the 24 Paws household.  To be around dog people of like and open mindedness is not something I ever choose to take for granted.  It still amazes me to this day since we started blogging almost two years ago the wonderful support and encouragement that we have received from dog bloggers and the freedom to do so.  It took me a while to understand the whole "community" aspect of blogging, when we've been hit with so much negativity about our dogs.  I have enjoyed being able to tear down those walls and embrace this wonderful love for animals with others who know what it is like to be dog crazy.  It has been all of you who have helped in that crumbling of my defenses and be able to share so open and true about what our dogs mean to us.  Just knowing there was one doggie/animal lover who understood was enough to blow me away, but a whole community?  That's enough to bring me to a play bow!!  An open invitation that says come on in, we get it!!

 Marco and 3/4 of the Back Dogs

I would like to share a little about my husband, who's nickname is Marco.  For I would have never had the guts to blog about our dogs if it wasn't for him.  He walked into this marriage never really owning an animal and it is his childlike wonder without the restrictions of rules or "laws" that has helped me to open my eyes with a fresh perspective.  For many years I grew up with what your "suppose" to do and not do with dogs, theories I've been conflicted with for many years.  Dogs were my best all my life, but all I could ever find was that master/slave relationship with them and I struggled.  Marco's innocence and freedom has also been chiseling at that wall of mine of right and wrong.  I always felt so chained by my beliefs and what could be and it has been Marco that has redefined that cold hard belief system that breaks me down.  It is because of him I am renewed every day with the loving friendship I have every day with my dogs and power that lies within that love.  While I still have a knee jerk reaction to Marco's ideas they are becoming less and less while I learn to accept this new way of living with my six best friends and treating them as such.  I always knew dogs were more than just there, I've survived hell and back because of them, what I didn't know was how full and honest that relationship could be or that it was a two way street.  Marco helped to open my eyes and heart to all of these ideas.  It has brought a wholeness and balance to our family, even when it looks to be divided, which couldn't be further from the truth.  I've watched this what seemed to be extreme chaos come together like a powerful tornado of love, ready to blow apart all the old stigmas on dog training, behavior and beliefs, because the dogs have shown me it can be done.  There is more than one way.  There are other options if you search your heart and bind to their spirits.  It is possible to do the impossible.  When it is all done with love.

This is what you have taught me.  This is what my husband has taught me.  This is what the dogs have taught me.  There is more than one way to love a dog, let's never give up on that truth.  There are so many more that need to learn.   Let's keep blogging our way to change the dog world for a better place for the them and for us.    If I can change, so can others.  Are you with me?