A Birthday Celebration

I realize that I am blessed. Not in a religious way. I’d say more in a “damn I’m lucky” kind of way. This can be attributed to a plethora of things but today it’s because I get to see my beautiful pup Bindi turn the big 1 5!! That’s right, my angel turns 15 years old today.

My wife @reeseshara was kind enough to go grab a little birthday cookie along with a birthday ribbon and crown. We snapped a few pics to celebrate Bindi hitting this milestone. I’ll sprinkle those throughout along with some others, but I’ll first tell ya about this character a bit.

Yummy

I got her in 2004 when she was a few months old and she was the second pup in my pack. The first being her big brother and the light of her life, Bandit. The pack grew with the addition of Kitano several months after Bindi’s arrival and then finally Maya several years later.

She was trouble

Bandit with a tiny Bindi

Bindi is my pure white Siberian Husky. When I initially got her she had one green eye and one blue one. A few years into Bindi’s precious life, the green one turned brown.

Baby Bindi with her love, Bandit

Bindi was by far my most troublesome pup of the 4. She was an instant terror and chewed...everything. The wooden kitchen cabinets. Floorboard. Carpet. Table legs. Bannister. “Ev-Er-Y-Thing”! She was also my fastest running and highest jumping pup. Oh, she was also a Master of the Mystics, as she would vanish out of my yard without a trace or point of exit.

Baby Kitano & Teenage Bindi

The Three Amigos

The pack in full swing

Today is a far cry from the glory days of having me chase her down my cul-de-sac in the hot Las Vegas sun. The thought of long walks with all 4 of the pups are a mental snapshot of the past. Her older brother Bandit passed away days before my 35th birthday in February of 2015. Her younger brother Kitano just 2 over months ago in early September. It’s just her and her younger sister Maya now.

Bindi, Protector of Toys

The house is quieter these days. Maya is still a maniac but has calmed in the past couple of years. Bindi just putters around the house and yard when she’s not sleeping. She’s super happy and content with life. I know she misses the boys immensely but she’s perfectly happy each and every day.

Finn, Bindi & Maya Laying the guilt on as I leave for work

She gets good and sound sleep as her hearing is like 75% gone from what it used to be. She’s got a bit of arthritis but gets around well enough. She has her tummy issues but she’s had those for years. Her breath smells like boiling garbage juice and she’s missing her front teeth and a few others that have been pulled out or have fallen out on their own. Did I mention her vision is probably about half of what it used to be?

Chillin like a villain after a rainstorm

Well all of that is true but she also has the heart of a champion. She would speak when she ate her food and still does from time to time. She learned a bunch of commands and was highly intelligent. She was a hysterical howler. She’s loving and is great with kids and cats. She gives smelly kisses. She houses her food down and barely chews her treats. She is wonderful and easy to care for. She is happy and healthy all things considered. For that I am super grateful.

A moment with an angel

I’m so lucky and blessed...there’s that word again, but I truly feel that when it comes to the pups. They have been with me for a tremendously important chunk of my life. Through several house. A move from the hot Las Vegas heat to the Jersey Shore. By my side as I opened a business. Across the country and apart by 3000 miles as I made a movie on the West Coast. Through a marriage. Followed by a bitter divorce and having their “mom” abandon them. Then another marriage. To kids being in the house. To having cats living amongst them. Through exciting new pup additions and the traumatic loss of life long companions. The one thing that has held true through all of that was the bond with my pack. We get to walk this path together and I am eternally grateful for that. I couldn’t have had better companions by my side for this chapter of my life.

Perfection

I’m under no illusions that our good fortune with Bindi comes with an expiration date as it had previously done with Bandit and Kitano. When that time comes, I’ll be inconsolable and another piece of me will be lost forever. I just hope it’s ages from now when all her teeth are gone and she’s relying on memory to navagate through the house. She still has more smiles to deliver. There is more to our story together that has yet to be written.
So I ask you to join me in raising a glass wherever you are, to my beautiful baby girl Bindi! Help us get this next chapter off to a beautiful start. Happy 15th Birthday, angel. Love ya more than you can possibly imagine.

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@supernovastaffy