4 years ago, while madly in love, I drove to California<\/p>\n
It took me 3 days, 2 gallons of coffee, and one mental breakdown<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
This February, I bought a puppy<\/p>\n
She is the first dog I have owned since childhood<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The drive had nothing to do with being in love<\/p>\n
I was visiting family. \u00a0My partner was 8,000 miles away<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My puppy\u2019s name is Xena, like the warrior princess<\/p>\n
I guess I\u2019m hoping she rubs off on me like that<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My family and I walked through the streets of Palm Springs<\/p>\n
Little shops were around every corner<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Xena is headstrong and rambunctious<\/p>\n
\u201cCuddles\u201d is her favorite word<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
As we passed by one shop, I saw a dress on sale<\/p>\n
It was everything I thought a wedding gown should be<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Xena passed obedience training at the top of her class<\/p>\n
The trainer couldn\u2019t believe how well-behaved she was<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The dress fit me perfectly and I cried<\/p>\n
$400 later, it was mine<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Xena is training to be a service dog<\/p>\n
I bought her at the advice of my psychiatrist<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I kept the dress a secret<\/p>\n
My partner and I had talked about the future, but we weren\u2019t engaged<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Xena was $1,000<\/p>\n
I got her when she was 3 months old<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
I figured there was no harm in buying a dress early<\/p>\n
When would I ever find a dress like that again?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Xena\u2019s training costs $2,995<\/p>\n
By this time next year, she will be fully trained<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
We had been together a year and a half<\/p>\n
I knew he was the man I\u2019d marry<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Xena is supposed to be the one that helps me<\/p>\n
I don\u2019t do well living in society<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Yesterday, I found Xena next to my dress<\/p>\n
It was in tatters. \u00a0There were beads all over the floor<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
2 months after I bought that dress 4 years ago<\/p>\n
I broke up with the man I thought I\u2019d marry<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Xena is helping me learn to live alone<\/p>\n
I can\u2019t believe how well she understands her task<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
4 years ago, while madly in love, I drove to California It took me 3 days, 2 gallons of coffee, and one mental breakdown This February, I bought a puppy She is the first dog I have owned since childhood The drive had…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4616,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-134376","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-marathon-poem"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134376","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4616"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=134376"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134376\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":134950,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/134376\/revisions\/134950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=134376"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=134376"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thepoetrymarathon.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=134376"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}