Happy Valentine's Day!

I love Valentine's Day.

It’s a day for bacon cookies and peanut butter kongsicles, bouquets of freshly gnawed sticks, and slobber-soaked squeak toys shared with your sweetie.

It’s a day for flowering epistles of love to fill the cyberwebs with so much saccharinisity that you’ll need an extra walk or romp in the park to burn off the sugary contact high.

Most importantly, it’s a day to share in and celebrate love and friendship with those you hold dear.

I know I act all ruff and tough and serious.   I've kept myself emotionally distant and business-like throughout this blog.  But it's time to let you in on a little secret.

Truth be told, I'm really a big softie.  I love cuddles and date nights.  I love chick flicks and happy endings and I’ve chewed through more romance novels than my mom cares to count.  I’ve watched Lady and the Tramp so many times I can recite it backwards with a tennis ball in my mouth, but I still cry every time Trusty gets hurt.

I also have another secret.  I know I never really talk about my life outside of work, but today is an exception.  I've kept these feelings pent up inside for far too long, and it's time to let them out of their crate. 

You see, I have a Valentine.  A sweetheart.  A suitor. 

A - gulp - boyfriend, if you will.  

There!  I said it.  That wasn't so hard, was it?

He’s the only pup in the world who can make my butt wiggle with excitement and my skin tingle with his touch.  He warms my heart on cold winter nights and kisses away my worries when my job gets a little overwhelming.  He's my man, and I love him dearly.  I've kept quiet about our love for far too long, which hasn't been fair to him.  I've been a little self-conscious, not knowing if the world would take a young entrepreneur seriously if she had such a studmuffin by her side.  But with all the love in the air today, I can't keep these feelings inside me any longer!  I love him! I LOVE DUKE!

You guys have seen him before...his handsome face has been a model for my cookies for the past couple years.  But that's not enough.  I need to express all the love I have for him before I explode into a sticky pile of lovesick goo.

Let me share with you the letter I wrote to him today.

My dearest Duke,

My prince.  My king.  My perfect Coon Hound.

My Duke of Squirrels

I love you not for your tracking ability, or how you can tree a squirrel in three seconds flat.  I love you not because your eyes are warm pools of Tupelo honey, dripping slowly into my soul. 

I don't love you because you smell like trees and freshly mowed grass, or how your coat is like pumpernickel and peanut butter.

I love you for all of this, and more. I love you because you accept me who for I am, and have always looked past my days of homelessness and my pitbull heritage.  You see the gorgeous girl beneath these spots and huge feet, and show me my beauty within.  I love you because when I remember all the loneliness I felt as a child, you're there to comfort me and remind me of how far I've come.

I love how your long, velvety ears caress my cheeks when we play.  I love how your feet smell like corn chips and you lumber like an elephant when we chase squirrels. 

Oh, Duke.  I love how you're tall and rugged like a canine John Wayne.  I love how you're open and honest with your feelings and aren't afraid to wear your emotions on your fur.  I love your warm and soulful voice, calling out to me in that deep baritone I can hear from two blocks down (much to our neighbor's dismay).

My dearest Duke.  When I first met you, it wasn't love at first sight. I was too busy stalking that squirrel at the park to notice the spry young man who'd just frolicked into my life.  Then on the walk home, I was too jealous of your attention to Lily to even notice you guys weren't interested in each other...ya know...THAT way.

But then your mom brought you over for a playdate, and our eyes locked for the first time.  I remember my heart did a little pitter-patter that usually only happens after I steal my dad's cheeseburger. I remember the vibrations I felt from my ears to the tip of my tail, and for the first time, I prayed I didn't have grass in my hair or tennis ball fibers between my teeth.

I didn't fall hard and fast into love with you.  Instead, it's been a long, slow, beautiful tumble, tooth over tail, further and further into this abyss.  

I'm still falling for you.  I don't know how deep this goes, but I hope I never reach the bottom. I love falling in love with you.

We have our differences.  You're purebred and I'm a mutt, you're a chewer and I like fetch.  You like The Walking Dead and I'm a Breaking Bad kind of girl.

But somehow, through it all, you've become my prince.  And I'm your blooming Rose, now and forever.

He's romance royalty.

I love you, Duke.  And so I ask, with all the world listening (reading, I guess..)...

Will you make me the happiest pup on the planet and be my Valentine?

Love Always, 

Your Rosie