Hi friends! Long time, no blog. Sorry about that. Cazey moved to a new country and I got a little distracted with getting my Master’s.

In the year since I’ve written anything, a lot has happened, but there’s one story I want to tell you about today. It was my thirtieth birthday weekend, so Cazey came down to visit. We were planning to meet up for wine, so he was texting me tactical things like, “What time are we getting there?”

Then, he texted me a Petfinder link. When I opened it, I knew immediately I had to apply for her. She was exactly what I wanted, which was a post-puppy dog that was brindle and around 40 pounds. The application is relatively easy, so I filled it out and went to the happy hour.

A few days later, I got a call from an unknown number. I typically don’t answer, but felt compelled. When I said, “Hello?” there was silence. After a few more tries, I hung up.

Soon thereafter, I got a text telling me I got the dog if I wanted her!

Immediately, I panicked. I do want the dog. I’ve wanted a dog for years, and she is exactly what I wanted. AND I knew I wasn’t going back to the office full-time, so I was in a better position to have a dog. But, she’s a commitment! And what if she’s terrible? What if she doesn’t like me? What if she’s mean?

I crowdsourced as many questions as I could, got the SPCA to answer as much as they could and went to meet her. She laid down next to me, let me pet her and licked me until we went for a brief walk. After that brief interaction, they asked if I wanted her. I did want her, but it felt like an awful big commitment to make after about ten minutes.

But I jumped in! I took her home with me. And that little lady whined the entire ride home. Did I just make a grave mistake?

Roll forward one year later

Now that I’ve have Bellatrix for a full year, I can say with confident I made the best choice that day. Sure, she still loves to whine, and yeah, she loves to direct the walk to her whim, but gosh is she lovely.

She makes me laugh all the time. You can throw a ball at her and she’ll leisurely walk to go get it — unaffected by the encouragement to run. She likes to lie down to eat kibble. Sometimes she won’t even eat the kibble until I hand feed it to her a little bit.

She’s so full of love. She’ll lick you to death if you let her. She likes to curl up close next to me and flip over onto her back to get some belly rubs. She’s a burrower and loves to climb under the covers in the morning and cuddle. If I’m on my side, she’ll crawl into the bend of my leg to be as close as possible.

She forces me to exercise. You say the word ‘Walk” and you better be ready to roll! We’ve taken her hiking lately and she is so focused on adventure, she barely notices anyone or any other dog on the trail.

She also makes me be social. She’s got so many dog friends, that genuinely without her, I don’t think I’d have left my house nearly as much this past year. She loves playing, even if she’s incredibly loud while she’s doing it.

She’s basically the best, which is why when the time came to reboot Richmond Brunch Weekend, it was an easy decision. I wanted to partner with an organization that supports pups just like Bellatrix. I wanted to help fundraise to give other people the opportunity to find the pet that’ll bring them as much joy as Bellatrix has brought me.

So, in honor of Bellatrix and all the rescue pets, I hope you get out and brunch at one (or more) of our restaurant partners this September 10-11 for Richmond Brunch Weekend! If you can’t make it — or can make it but want to do more — please make a donation! We’ve set a lofty goal of fundraising $5,000 before the event. And yes — of course we have t-shirts too. A portion of each sale of those will go to the Richmond SPCA .

I’m looking forward to seeing you out and about for Richmond Brunch Weekend!