Happy Birthday, Izzy (only 1 week late)

The only birthdays I can remember besides my own and my husband's are one of the dogs' birthdays and Speedy's. The other dog and Izzy get forgotten every time. Frankly, the only reason I remember the birthdays that I do is because Tobi's is the day before mine, and Speedy's is on tax day, April 15th.

Tobi is the black one, and Brienne is the yellow one.

The thing is, I like celebrating my four-legged family members' birthdays. I don't go all wild and crazy about them, and in fact, I don't really do anything extra special, but I still enjoy the day. For me, there's a weird sense of accomplishment in having an animal for its entire life, and I love checking off yet another year. Izzy's special day was last Monday, May 14th.

Decmeber 2015

Izzy came to me as a six-year-old, nearly an adult. In reality he was still a baby with a lot of growing up to do. Those first few years with him were tough ones. First, I had to deal with the leg that suffered that terrible laceration, and then I had to cope with all the I don't wanna attitude.

Our first day together.

This birthday, his tenth, has revealed a more mature and confident horse. Speedy did the same thing except I had to wait a lot longer before I had a horse I enjoyed. I bought Speedy as a three-year-old, so it took nearly seven years before I really liked him enough to pull down the for sale sign.

While Izzy is probably not completely finished with the temper tantrums and sassy attitude, they're definitely becoming few and far between. Even at fourteen Speedy still likes to flip me the bird.

Favorite photo, but it shows what he can now do.

I've said many times that I hope to never purchase another three-year-old, four-year-old, or even an 8-year-old. Make mine a ten-year-old, and you've got yourself a deal!