#1 Hard work really does pay off. Giving up will always be a mistake.

When we got little Raffa she was the most challenging 3-month year old pup I thought anyone could ever have. No it wasn’t that it was hard to potty train her or that she was sickly, it was that she was extremely hyperactive and overly verbal ALL THE TIME. She really pissed buzz off with her incessant ear biting and pawing, she ate the couch several times, dragged toilet paper all over the house, chewed 5 pairs of my sandals which included my one and only expensive pair of Errol Arendz sandals. Daily she would dig up the flowerbeds and excavate craters into the lawn.

It eventually got to the point where I considered giving her away on Gumtree. My thoughts: “I mean I’m not selling her, I’m giving her away, so someone awesome with a good home and big property will want her right? Anyway, who could resist her gorgeous face…?” There were some days I really meant it and others not as much, but you get how I was feeling. Eventually 10 months passed and I realized that things weren’t so crazy anymore. A few days went by that I didn’t think about what a mess she had made but rather how lovely she is. Was it that everything I had put up with was so completely and utterly worth it? I think so…

Her personality is one of a kind and her affection towards me is on a human-like level if that is even a term. The bond we have is unbreakable. If I had not pushed through the trying times with Raffa, my life right now would be very empty. In fact she has helped me through some of the hardest months of my life this year. Her excitability when I walk through that door makes every ruined grass blade, torn rose bush, “confettied” toilet paper and chewed up sandal strap worth it. She is so easy to love and that’s not because she doesn’t dig up the garden anymore (because she does), that’s because she brings so much energy, positivity and happiness into my life. If things had come too easy, perhaps I wouldn’t appreciate her as much as I do, and I certainly would not be writing a blog post about her either. Giving her up would have been a very BIG mistake.

{Right now she is curled up next to me. It took her about 4 times to get into a position that would touch every inch of my body surface area…}