Zoey & me!

It has been months since I have put pen to paper. Call it writers block or just uninspired; nonetheless, I’ve come up blank these last months. In November I turned 60 years old. I have been waiting a couple of years to enter this decade. To me it is the decade of bringing everything that I have learned (good and bad) together. The ultimate embodiment of congruency. Something I so deeply believe in. And as a runner I pride myself on bringing the mind, body, soul experience together as one. I have heard cliches all my life and I have my favorite ones that I often use. So over the summer time when my partner was offered a position to teach at one of the top universities in the country, almost 1000 miles from our NYC home, I had to take a deep breath and remind myself of one of those cliches: “go with the flow.” I was and still am very excited and supportive of a decision that we made together. Yes it is a challenge, but we are making it work. We are the ultimate LTA couple (living together apart.) We laugh, we cry, we fight, but more than anything we love. Besides, we both agreed this is just a stepping stone so if another position were to be offered 300 or even 500 miles, it will be a walk in the park for us. LTA leaves me with a lot of time to think and to miss, not only my partner but my dog who had to accompany her across the miles. I started thinking how nice it would be to get a little dog for company, one that can fly back and forth with me. I had been thinking about this for a long while, especially over the summer while spending time with my sister and her little Yorkie, Chanel. I knew I wanted a small dog from a reputable breeder. I started to do lots and lots of research—on toy dogs, dogs that do not bark, dogs that can stay alone, active dogs, nonactive dogs. My research was extremely broad. I narrowed it down to dogs under 10 pounds and hypoallergenic. I just could not do another dog that sheds. My OCD has been in overdrive these past 10 years. I further narrowed it down to a Yorkie or a Maltese and since I am extremely affectionate, the Maltese won. Being in no rush I read and reread everything I could about the Maltese. There is way too much information out there and a lot of negative information too. Truthfully if I believed in everything I read by these so called experts, then I, and everyone I know, do not deserve to have a dog. So I stopped reading except for those posts that came from real parents of the Maltese whose background was not so distant from mine. Four weeks before my 60th birthday my partner sent me links to two breeders. It was Monday evening, right before retiring to bed that I saw HER on this one breeder’s site. There she was, a 4-week old female Maltese still available with no deposit on her. The very next day I called the breeder and asked what I had to do to assure them I was serious. They told me and I obliged. All the stars and planets aligned. And on November 3rd, 2 days before my 60th birthday, my little Zoey was in my arms. She is a dream. I absolutely adore her. So getting up at 4 am every morning to spend time with her before my morning run is effortless. But putting her in her crate for an hour and then coming home from my run and having to put her back in her crate once I leave for work is torture for me not her. So here I am a runner who NEEDS to run in the biggest dilemma of my life. How do I run and when do I run? I am tortured in tears with the Nike slogan going in and out of my mind “just do it” “just do it”. Okay I will just do it but when? I am a mile chaser not a speed racer, so how am I supposed to get those miles in? I have been doing the same running routine for over 10 years. I sit and think, “what am I going to do,” while throwing the ball back and forth, at 4 in the morning, as Zoey just runs back and forth as happy as can be. Then the light bulb goes off: what if I run Zoey? Surely she can run—dogs love to run! But she has such little legs. However, they say the Maltese needs exercise. I won’t tell anyone but I will try it. I will pay close attention to her and if I see she cannot do it, I will stop. I will start her off with a half mile and see how she does. Then I graduated to a mile and she was fine. I decided if I can get her to do 3-to-4 miles then I can do splits during the week and as many miles as I want on weekends. I can break up my mileage since now I will be running 7 days instead of 6. I have it mentally all figured out. I do it. I take her on her first 3 mile run. I stop and pick her up and she wiggles to get down. There is no way she is being carried. I have created a runner. She is my running partner. And on those days she cannot run because it is raining or snowing, I realize wow she is me. We both are runners. The Moon is in Taurus 1st quadrant and its trine the sun. A time of balance and harmony. Enjoy☮️