Val McCormick Photography

I’m sure everyone has a moment or a brief period in their lifetime that they remember being overcome by that giddy, restless and overwhelming feeling of puppy love. When so privileged as to be infatuated with someone that the world brightens around you at the mere memory of their tentative first words and shy smiles. Perhaps not everyone becomes as excitable as I did in the days following our chance encounter at the local Home Depot, with the idea of wiping the unintentional smile off my face laughable and the long hours at work somehow shortened by the anticipation of Jason’s first phone call, but I can’t imagine this kind of feeling being anything but splendid and I truly hope that each of you are able to envision it as vividly as I do.

I needed to build a dog house for Scampi. With the help of my father, I found that what I lacked were a couple pints of weatherproof paint (color later decided upon as a forest green that was in actuality much too bright to blend in with the deep woods of Ashford) and most of a roof’s number of charcoal shingles. Thus, late-morning on a Sunday in July, I found myself wandering the tall aisles of the Home Depot in Windham, CT, swinging a can of paint and a can of white outdoor primer from one arm and wondering how I was going to hoist the awkward package of shingles onto my shoulder without making a fool of myself.

Cue Jason.

It was amazing. I turned out of the lamp aisle where I had been wasting time, too embarrassed to ask for help with the parcel one row down from where I was pretending to be interested in a horrendous ceiling hanging that gave off a rather garish yellow glow, and saw a familiar figure silhouetted in the sunshine pouring in through the automatic sliding doorway of the store. Was I ever glad to see him! From his fiendishly handsome grin (that didn’t disappear from the moment he recognized me) to his generously formed biceps that so easily placed my shingles into the cart, I could not have been more excited to find myself in a situation where I had an excuse to rekindle our easy camaraderie.

Five days and a Scampi/Tia dog walk later, I was sold. Conversations of hours upon hours flew by like minutes, the more I learned, the more I fell in love with not only his charm and his good looks, but his noble way of treating the world and the beautiful way in which he lives each day. Now, years later, I find myself endlessly moved by the same incredible man, one who I have been both challenged and inspired by as our lives now continue on together, one who has miraculously turned out to be my best friend and the love of my life.

Here’s to you and I, Jason, and to all those who have made us who we are. For the beautiful history we now have together and for all the dog walks yet to come.

-Brianna