Brave Enough To Be Bliss

Will, like Kylee’s dad had done with my family and friends, blended in perfectly. He could carry on a conversation with anyone, and everyone liked him and trusted him with our girl. She was the first grandchild on both sides of the family for four years, so she was doted on and perhaps still gets a little extra oversight because of that bond.

In early July that year, Kylee and Danielle moved into an apartment in downtown Kansas City. It had a beautiful view overlooking the river and the downtown airport, and the sunsets were spectacular.

Kylee graduated from nursing school in mid-April, took her boards in late July and started work in August. However, a couple weeks into work, she got sick and was diagnosed with mononucleosis. She had all the typical symptoms, and I don’t think I’d ever seen her sicker. Fortunately, though, she had someone to keep her company through those weeks at home recovering.

Even though she wasn’t feeling well, as any mom or nurse could tell looking at her eyes, on the morning of August 21, 2019, I drove Mom Kylee and Godmother/Aunt Danielle a few hours south to pick up Cooper, a precious eight-week-old goldendoodle puppy. I had followed through on that promise I made over a decade earlier that when she got her own place, I would buy her a dog. I even paid extra so she could get the first pick of the litter, and when she picked him up and he peed on her, she said, “He’s mine.” And even though she had a long wait to get him at 23 years of age, I think she’d even say he was well worth the wait because he has been the perfect dog for her. What I hadn’t counted on was getting so attached to the little guy myself. Those eyes just melted my heart, even when he ruined my favorite pair of espadrilles one morning when I had a sleepover at their apartment.

Before Cooper, I hadn’t been comfortable around dogs because of several bad

experiences in the past. Not surprisingly since you’ve read this far, when something scared me, I preferred to avoid it, so I didn’t think I liked dogs. I worked with a physician who said he didn’t trust anyone who didn’t like dogs, so when Kylee came to work with us, I had to warn her not to tell him how I felt. It never occurred to me to explain that I was actually scared of dogs because of those experiences, I just felt I had to hide the fact I didn’t like dogs. As it turns out, once I was around a dog as a puppy and was able to watch him grow physically as well as develop a bond with him, my fears began to subside. With less fear, I was able to look back with compassion and recognize they were simply hurt, hungry, unloved dogs who were likely scared too. I could have tried to explain why I didn’t like dogs to the physician, but anytime I felt judged, I shut down and preferred to lie to give myself a feeling of more safety.

After Cooper came into my life, though, I was sure to show that physician photos of me with him, so in case he had sensed anything, I could prove to him that now I liked dogs.

Kylee now had her bestie back as a roommate and two new very special men in her life, and it did my heart so much good to see her smile. Cooper kept them busy and did his share of chewing on things he shouldn’t for a

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