March 2, 2003, a 10-month-old Labrador puppy named Jordyn came to my house. She had been labeled "untrainable" and assumed to have a neurological disorder because her first owners had had Labs their entire lives and had never experienced before the problems they were having with Jordyn.
My new 10-month-old ran around the yard behaving as if she was deliriously happy to be free, and if she was tail-over-tea-kettle in love with Satchel. Her first owners didn't want to leave and said, "If you change your mind, we'd like to be the first to take her back." My face didn't hide my surprise well. I never considered my acceptance of this puppy to be conditional, and I certainly wasn't considering it within minutes of her arrival. I think I just said, "Ok. We'll see how we mesh as a family," or something like that.
She was mine. She didn't even know how deeply she was mine yet, but she was already talking to me, and she told me her name was actually Luna. In the following days, and months, Luna showed us who she was. There was no neurological disorder. There was nothing wrong with her. She had simply been with the wrong family.
The "Untrainable" Black Lab became a Registered Therapy Dog and received an award as The Most Gentle Jumper into hospital beds. My Luna became my Service Dog and she received recognition for performing 100% of the Canine Good Citizen test items at 100%, years after her initial title performance.
Luna discovered her true love for me around late 2004. Our path of life together had been very challenging up until then, and during some of my most challenging experiences, Luna walked beside me. We walked together. I feeling comfort from her presence, and she feeling purpose in her support of me. There had been love between us all along, but as two strong, sometimes misunderstood girls, our bond became welded that year. We became a pair in 2004. Inseparable. Unbreakable.
I have a lot of love in my life. I do not lack for kindness, attention, support, nor devotion, but I have never been loved as I am by Luna. She elevates everything about me. She elevates how I feel, how I feel about myself, how I see, how I work, how I learn, how I know. Luna makes everything more fun, more peaceful, more meaningful. Luna makes everything.
Luna is everything.
