Bonding with a dog is one of the most beautiful experiences in my life, it is, without question, a kind of love affair, a mutual and beautiful dance of life and connection.

I have bonded with a number of dogs, and the feeling is always special and powerful, it humbles me, inspires me, improves me. Zinnia and I are bonding, more and more every day.

We are already working together, she and I, riding together, training together, resting together, writing together. Now we are beginning to talk together. On a very cold and damp afternoon, we walked on a nearby country road.

We’ve been to Bishop Maginn three times, the Mansion a half dozen times. She’s met hundreds of people and been in scores of places. She is well on the way to being socialized and prepped for therapy work. She is a Joy Spreader.

I took her off-leash for half, on a leash for half. I am learning to trust her and to give her the choice to be my dog. On our walk, she never strayed more than 20 or 30 feet, she came every time I called, happily and on the road.

She stops to sniff things along the road but always looks up to see where I am. I am training her to never run away, and she is learning naturally to never run away. I don’t take this for granted, we will be working hard and continuously to make this natural and instinctive.

When I walked quickly away from her, she ran to catch up with me. We enjoy being together, not in the same way Maria and I do, but in a deep and different way.

Our bond of trust and communication is working. She loves to go on walks, she is learning what she must do to go on walks with me. We have started work on “lie down,” and also on-leash walking.

I do not intend to have this dog pulling me down a road when she is 60 lbs. That means I have to do the work now. It is such a gift to bond with a dog, there is a purity to this love that is precious. On this walk, she ran up ahead to run along the snow.

I didn’t need to call her, she turned and saw me and came charging up the road to be with me. This is stuff to build on, a relationship to grow.