Happy Birthday, Stella! March 17, 2016

My Corgi mix, Stella, just had a milestone birthday. She is sixteen-years-old and still as beautiful as ever! We estimated that she was born on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, in 2000. She was a tiny ball of tri-colored fur and I fell in love with her at second-sight, as soon as I discovered her brother, Riley, was taken. Her two aunts, Stacey and Adele (Stella is a combination of their names) had found Riley and Stella, two give-aways at a feed store, and brought them home. They knew I would take her and Stacey's son, Chase was already madly in love with Riley. I had lost my second Corgi, the twin brother of my first Corgi mix recently and was feeling very sad.

I wasn't really that excited, and tried hard to be practical, knowing I would soon have major surgery due to a recurrence of breast cancer. I wasn't sure that caring for a puppy and dealing with a second mastectomy was a great mix.

I was told by the Stella's aunties that this was a very special nurse Corgi, and she would take care of me and guard me while I was recovering. I spent two hours driving home to Jupiter from Ocala figuring out what to tell Dan. I arrived home with a pretty good story. Stella would be staying with us because she needed to go to the vet's and be wormed and checked over and the aunties didn't have enough money between them to get Riley and Stella an exam. My story was true. I was doing them a favor and would bring Stella back up to Ocala for our annual SEDRA awards banquet the following month. Once a year, our regional riding organization dressed up, went somewhere nice for a dinner and gave out a boatload of awards for a long distance riding competition season. It was always a blast!

So Dan breathed easily for three weeks, playing with the puppy and getting to know her. Shortly before I left to go back for the banquet, he said a little tentatively, "You are sure you are taking her back up with you?"

Yes, I told him. I was taking her back to Ocala. What I didn't tell him was that she was coming back home with me because, of course, I'd fallen in love with her, and she was my new Corgi mix, nurse puppy. She was the best! Dan seemed a little sad when he asked me that question.

And that is how Stella came to live with us!