A New Chapter

Where have the past few months gone?
Honestly, it has been a blur. I started a new job/career in September and have taken on many more responsibilities leaving me struggling to find a balance in life.
Work Work Work was all I knew to do and never was able to find time for myself.
I Started to actually get a little down about this as a balanced life was what I have been working towards the past year.
I took some time to step back ( again) and really pay attention to my self-care.
I started to make more time for myself and re-read a lot of my previous posts to really kick me into gear.
Right as I was starting to get the hang of living a balanced life of work and play, we decided to throw a puppy into the picture.

Something me and my partner had been talking about for years wanting to get a puppy but the timing was never right for us.
My 30th birthday coming up and I would not give up the fact that all I wanted for my birthday was a puppy. We started to look and see what are our options where and saw that a puppy was looking for their forever home. The posting was made 2 hours prior to me seeing it and after some discussion, we found that we would have the puppy in possession on my actual 30th birthday, everything seemed to be coming together and the universe working in my favour for my birthday wish.

This is when life would change for ever.
We brought Harley-Quinn into our lives, a female German Shepherd.
She was 12 weeks when we got her and so full of energy and life.
She warmed up to us right away and within the first week, we had her trained to go outside to use the washroom with a few accidents here and there.
Sadly I came down with the worst flu I think I have ever had the following day after getting our precious puppy missing my actual 30th birthday celebrations it was the hardest few nights of my life having no time to rest, running around keeping her out of trouble.

I took on a new responsibility and became a full-time mom, my heart filled with so much love for her so quickly and every day she teaches me to grow into the better person I want to become.
Teaching me to cool my temper and be patient as training is a complete process of patience and remaining calm.
She motivates me to work hard every day so I can provide her with the best possible life she can have.

She gets me outside more and keeps me being active with the millions of walks and runs we go on in a day , to the point over the past month I have been able to reach my weight goal!
Along with many other things i won’t continue to bore you with, she has opened my heart fully to love unconditionally and become an all-around better person towards others.

“You don’t know what you have until its gone” How many times we have heard this saying before, but it’s so very true.
Prior to Harley, I honestly did not appreciate what i actually had, A life where I was free to do absolutely what I wanted whenever i wanted along with being able to sleep when i wanted. These days nights have been getting longer and the mornings have been getting earlier, lucky if I get 6 hours a night.( I am used to 8-10)
I wouldn’t change it for anything though, she has definitely gotten me out of a shell and continues to show me more to life. She has become my entire world and I look forward to watching her grow.

Things we need to improve, She loves people, what’s the problem?
She ALWAYS wants to say hi, and this involves a lot of excitement which includes jumping and love nibbles.
Dogs… She really just wants to play but here in Vancouver, not every owner wants to let their dog come near her as again, she has ALOT of excitement and as soon as the other dog walks away, she gets very upset and starts barking.
Vacumes, Clearly she hates them.
Nothing more to that … she hates anything with loud noises, like my hairdryer.
Then there are brooms .. you can pull it out no problem, but the second you take your first sweep, shes attached to the bristles.
But she’s a puppy, only 5 months old going through her “Terrible Twos” stage
With that being said, this has been the most important part she has taught me, to break from my shell of OCD. I mean its still a work in progesss but without her, I think I would have spiralled into a very dark hole of becoming crazy OCD and having it take over my life completely.
Anxiety, well they say dogs relieve that, but puppies …. we have our days where she definitely increases it but again i wouldn’t change the life we started with her for anything.

She has been in our little family now for 1.5 months and makes us proud every day with how much she learns and improves. I look so forward to continue to watch her grow and do my all to give her the best life possible.

I hope to bring a smile on anyone’s face reading this as bring you the joy of watching our miss Harley-Quinn grow up in the City.
For more daily fun with Harley, you can find her on Instagram
@Harleys_vancouver_adventures

Photos Taken By: @Mayahuntermcmartin

XoXo CB