When it came to my wedding day, there were a lot of things that I was willing to negotiate on, having my dog as one of my bridesmaids wasn’t one of them.
This story starts a long time before there was a ring, before I was even thinking about boys. When I was younger I had people who loved me, but I didn’t have people who understood me, and my childhood was very lonely. All that changed when Sunny came along. I’d been obsessed with dogs for as long as I could remember and I had a favorite breed, the Nova Scotia Duck Tolling Retriever, not so common in my country (Australia). When I was twelve my parents finally said I could have a dog, it would be another four years until I met Sunny. It was love at first sight, she was also to become my little love dog. We did everything together, and the highlight of my day was coming home to her happy face and wagging tail.
Years later, when I was at university, I took Sunny with me to drop off some assignments. It was a regular occurrence because I always left things until the last minute. Walking across the campus we passed a young man sitting on some steps. I paid him little attention, but Sunny knew better. My usually well-trained girl left my side and trotted over to the man, pushing his hand up with her head, begging for pats. Embarrassed I jogged over.
I was even more embarrassed when I realized the man was crying. I tried to get Sunny to leave him alone and come with me, but she refused, trying to climb into the poor man’s lap. Unwilling to get too near, and even less willing to leave her behind, I stood by. The man patted Sunny for a while before he looked up at me. Quickly rubbing his eyes he stood, mumbled an apology and made to leave. But Sunny wasn’t letting that happen. She ran between his legs causing him to fall to the hard ground. When he stood there was blood running down his arm from a deep looking cut on his elbow.
Feeling responsible, I offered to help him somewhere we could get some first aid. Sunny, her mission now complete, was happy to fall in beside us as we walked to the main building.
That was the day that I met Glenn. We seemed to keep running into each other around the campus, he would often ask about Sunny, and by the time our exams had come around, we were dating. Three years later he asked to borrow Sunny for a weekend. Little did I know he was trying to train her to carry the engagement ring he wanted to give me. It was a complete failure, and on the Sunday afternoon he brought Sunny back to me, and he proposed in a much less dramatic way then he had planned.
Sunny was such a big part of our relationship that I had to have her at our wedding. Glenn (learning from his previous attempt) found a professional dog trainer for me, and Sunny was taught to carry a specially designed bouquet and walk down the aisle. I’m not sad to say that she probably got more attention than me on the day. For bringing us together, and making our day a unique experience, she deserved it.
wedding dog, Pixabay
