The line in this song: “so often times it happens, you live your life in chains, and you never even know you have the key” speaks volumes, doesn’t it???

Over the past 6 months, I’ve unraveled so many tidbits about my past and how much it’s revealing to me why I started drinking and how my drinking evolved over the past 40 years. I really did have the key all along.

I’m listening to other people share their stories of how and why alcohol was in their lives and I find it so fascinating. Sharing their motivations for trying to become AF. It made me think about my motivation.

In 2019 we lost our shepherd Cheyenne. She was my girl. She was a gorgeous sable German Shepherd and although I’d always been fascinated with this breed, I never had one. So Cheyenne was my first and she taught me so much about the breed and really was the reason I became obsessed with the breed and started working in German Shepherd rescue. About the same time we lost her, a momma shepherd and her 3 puppies had a stopover at our rescue here in Las Vegas on their way to another GSD rescue in Missouri. We ended up being fortunate enough to adopt one of her puppies and we named him Sabot.

Unbeknownst to us, poor Sabot was born with a congenital heart condition and left us just a month after his second birthday. As you can imagine, we were crushed. I was angry and completely heartbroken. One of his sister’s had a heart condition but she outgrew it. We believe her puppies were probably the result of backyard breeding and likely born with these conditions because of it.

We lost Sabot in January of 2021 and that March is when I decided I needed to make some serious changes in my life. We had gone over to a friend’s house for dinner and one of my friend’s and her husband there that night had gone on keto and intermittent fasting. I sat with her at dinner and she shared with me about the diet and how well her and her husband were doing on it. I remember being so depressed during this time, even 3 months after losing Sabot. But something she said that night lit a fire in my belly and the next day I made up my mind I needed to change my diet and lose some weight.

I can remember the exact moment when I had this thought. Driving to work that morning, I was thinking about Sabot. How unfortunate for him the cards he had been dealt. How his little body tried for 2 years to grow and stay strong, but in the end, his heart just couldn’t keep up. I didn’t have that problem. I was born with an amazingly strong heart. How dare I continue to live my life this way? Eating crappy foods, no exercise, pouring poison down my throat. And although it took me a whole other year to get alcohol out of my life, I made these decisions in honor of my sweet Sabot-buttons.

Whatever your motivation is, run with it. The key that I had all along was for me to honor my dogs. In honor of my Sabot, Cheyenne, Abby. So that I can be there for my present and future pets. These are my children and I am choosing to live a healthier lifestyle so I can continue to give them the best life has to offer.