WHAT IZ LUV?

Meet IZ! I belong to him.  He picked me to be his human companion, five and half years ago, at Buchannan General Store, in Buchannan, Texas.

 I’ll always remember that day.  It was just before Easter that year. My husband, both my daughters, all of my grandchildren, and my brother and his wife from California were all with me in Austin, TX for the Easter Season. We caravaned out to Lake Buchannan, where we met Jim Eachus, the owner of the General Store there.

Jim introduced us to IZ , his siblings and his cousins.  Eager to enjoy PUPPYVILLE, we each began meeting the resident inhabitants of Lake Buchannan. As I greeted each precious, fuzzy member of IZ’s canine family (and there were lots of them!), I held them close and nuzzled my nose into their necks, I couldn’t help but notice that IZ, the only one with a pink nose and pink belly, nuzzled me back! His warmth and love “had me at hello.” And, so it was, that IZ chose me, when he was only four weeks old. His brother ALI couldn’t bear to be left behind–choosing to come live with us as well. 

 Two weeks later,when IZ and ALI came to live with us, my husband and I returned to Lake Buchannan equipped with food, water and a traveling kennel…everything needed to bring IZ and his brother ALI home with us. Being an unseasonably HOT day, we all really needed a “pit stop” to relieve our bladders. We stopped at a park with a stream and picnic tables and benches.

We poured water into a small bowlmade of molded plastic, and set it on the ground for IZ and ALI to drink from. Before IZ took even one drink, he dragged the bowl beneath the nearest source of shade–a picnic table. There, he and Ali drank every last drop. When the bowl was dry, this six-week old border collie flipped the bowl upside down and began skillfully pushing it with his nose, running the parking lot with it as though he were running a soccer ball across the field toward the goal; thus, providing our first, minuscule glimpse of things to come, our first insight into the intelligence of this miraculous being and how dramatically he would change lives.

At first, ALI went home with my daughter, leaving only IZ to train and raise us as his alone.  IZ could have been described as “easy to train,”but my own personal view is that he was born a master communicator. From the onset, he consistently let us know exactly what he wanted–consistency in return-to be challenged and to always learn something new–IZ loved developing his own “repertoire” of skills he could perform. He wanted fed, he wanted out, he wanted in, he wanted to play ball, wanted more toys, wanted all of his belongings to have individual names, wanted to play hide and go seek, wanted challenges, wanted to be with me and go with me every time the car went, and wanted to go to work with my husband. IZ loved riding up front–or with his head out the window–for that “Wind in the Face” feeling.

He has always enjoyed and loved the “drive-through” experience…greeting the pharmacist or the Starbuck’s baristas or the bank tellers–and gaining their respective rewards.

 

He made friends with everyone. The unrestrained enthusiasm and joy IZ expressed with finding his “snaky baby” or his “ball” or “mommy’s shoes” or “daddy’s keys” or bringing “the stick” brought sunlight into every moment of my life. Today, he still comes running, tail up, ears flopping like wings, whenever he hears his name called, or the simple, high-pitched, “YIP.”

Again, the joy he responded to us with, whenever we understood what he wanted and were able to deliver it, was his SECRET SKILL of intentional, highly-evolved communication. No one could but respond to IZ with the same joy he directed toward each and every one of us. Joy to Joy, Heart to Heart–IZ courageously lives and breathes these qualities with every breath and every pant.

His powers of recovery have been demonstrated over and over again throughout the five years we’ve spent together thus far. When he hit a car, he yelped, ran back into the yard where he layed down for about 20 minutes before leaping up as though nothing had happened.

When he fell down a fifty-foot mine shaft in New Mexico, he lay motionless in the blackness of the interior for four and a half hours (4 1/2) while we found a rock climber to descend down the hole, scoop IZ up in a canvas duffle bag and bring him back to the surface. He was one happy border collie, rejoining us and the light of day.

His courage has never wavered; not even when he was bitten by the rattlesnake IZ mistakenly greeted. Bleeding profusely, muscles failing him, he kept his eyes fixed on mine, with his Spirit shouting, “I love you too much to leave you–I’m gonna be okay, I’m gonna make it!”

It took IZ a year to recover from the bite. For a year, he couldn’t open his mouth wide enough catch his precious balls, yet his efforts were relentless until he did indeed, finally regain his abilities. The left side of his head remains concave, reminding us of his gallant spirit in the face of adverse circumstances.

IZ came into this world with his own remarkable genius, his own indominatable spirit, his own gregarious personality, generously, unabashedly sharing his love, sharing his tennis balls and frizbees while at the same time, remaining quick to join you in your game, idea or activity–always alert, always ready, always willing. He’s taught me and everyone he encounters how to love, how to live in and from our hearts, how to experience pure, unadulterated joy.

IZ trained me to be consistent and kind, to speak softly and affirmingly, to always validate, to listen and pay attention to what he’s telling me, to trust my instincts and act upon them.  The qualities he’s infused into my life are endless.

I’m so very grateful for the many gifts that IZ is and has brought to my life and this world as it comes to him. He’s truly been a great gift to the humanity that have been fortunate enough to make his acquaintance. 

ALI has since rejoined us, and has become a vital part of our lives, but it has been IZ who taught me more about what LOVE IZ and LOVE IZ NOT, than anyone or anything in the whole of my experience.

 

 

IZ PICKED ME!