A Noted Ampuversary

It was Castor's 5 month "ampuversary" today!
Woo Hoo!!

It's been a long 5 months; it really seems more like a year.


I feel like I've spent more quality time with Cas, more time really appreciating him since his surgery than I did at any time over the previous 6 years.


It really only took 2 months for him to be his usual, playful self. I remember the first time I saw him running on 3, chasing after a chocolate lab, trying to sound all ferocious. It was awesome.




I never thought he'd be running like this so soon:

I spent some time watching some videos of him as a quadruped the other day. The video that really took me back is probably not so exciting for you to watch, but it really stirs me up.

It's the day we left San Francisco for Santa Barbara. I took him to his park, Collingwood, as usual. It was our last walk home from the park, and I was weighed down by the finality of our departure. I wanted to capture his adorable prance, because I knew I'd never see it again.

It was pretty heavy as was, but I also had "Adia" stuck in my head. Some soundtrack for that morning. Jeez. Drama Queen, huh?

This is no sob story, though. In fact, I learned that Castor can prance on 3 legs. Happy Day!

It was weird, at first though, to see him walking around so casually in these videos. It really struck me how much more difficult it is for him to just walk around. Not that he knows that. You can't tell these non-humans that it's supposed to be hard. They just don't listen.

He's happy as ever. I honestly think that, aside from his puppyhood days on Summerland Beach, he's never been happier.

Shortly after watching him on 4, I saw his tripawd-ed-ness as strange for the first time.

It was one of the weirdest experiences, looking at him and just noticing the oddness of his stance. I saw that something was missing for the first time. This was the first time that I really noticed.


A breath later,
I left that fleeting moment outside of the dog park where I found it, and we went in to play.

And as with most days, it was the best part of mine.


Ever since that moment,
he's just been Cas again.


No more.


No less.

See how much we all love him: