In yesterday’s post I mentioned that we had received two awards and told you I would share the second award today.

Well as you can see from the title I’ve been awarded “Shiva the Dog’s PerSeverance Award” from Kristine and Shiva over at Rescued Insanity.

When Kristine established the ‘Shivies’ last year, she gave the award to ten dedicated bloggers.  This year she dedicated the ‘Shivie’ to ” People who have sacrificed their very sanity for the love of a dog.”

And she awarded it to us and nine other incredible blogs.  You can check out the complete post here.

When I was in college my favorite class and the very last one I took to complete my degree was Interpersonal Relationships.  I missed the very first class because we were away on vacation but I had e-mailed the instructor to let him know why I would be absent.  Yes my kids called me a brown-noser, but I chose to think of it as….um…interpersonal relationships.

This class was very diversified and there were some students much younger than I was, in fact I might have been the oldest in that particular class, but that isn’t the point.   The point is we got to talk about relationships and get to know each other by sharing thoughts, opinions and feelings.

This may come as a surprise to you, but I was very verbal in that class.  I know, I surprise myself sometimes too.

The instructor had devised awards for this class, he called them “The Stoneys” and I loved it because well, my last name is Stone. Duh.

The Stoney’s had something like five different categories (I can’t remember what they all were now) but the twist was the instructor didn’t choose the students to present the awards to, he let the class choose.  He passed out a sheet with each category on it as well as a sheet with each student’s name on it and he asked the students to choose which among their peers was deserving of each award.

For the last class of the semester we had a potluck supper and we all gathered in a conference room to celebrate our successful completion of Interpersonal Relationships.  At that time, our instructor presented the Stoney Awards.  Before he began his presentation he made a little speech where he said that the class chose exactly the way he himself would have.

Imagine my surprise when the instructor presented “Contributed the Most to the Class” to me.  I was stunned, humbled, flabbergasted, excited, proud and honored all at the same time.

And that is exactly how I feel about receiving the Shivie.

Kristine says the Shivie is for “People who have sacrificed their very sanity for the love of a dog.”

Ok, ok, she does at times drive me to the brink of insanity. 🙂 No, not Kristine, Delilah!

But the thing is I don’t feel like I am doing anything different from any of you would or have done, including Kristine herself.

I mean, yes there are days when I truly wonder if Delilah will eventually be my downfall.  Whether it be by driving me to insanity or physically killing me, I’m not entirely sure.

Hubby always says, “She is one dog that is happy to be alive.”  And that is true, Delilah embraces life, she runs head on full throttle at it.  Her attitude is “bring it on.”

There are many days where I have to laugh at this zany, exuberant, jumping, crazy dog because if I didn’t, I would put my head down and sob.

I waffle between thinking she is mildly retarded to down right dumb to just excited to have someone who wants to spend time with her.  I can’t help but love her, because she gives me no other choice.  She demands that.  She has that “You will love me and you will have fun doing it” attitude.

Life isn’t always easy and we have to find our joy and laughter where we can, Delilah brings both of those things into my life and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Kristine, I thank you from the bottom of my heart for this wonderful award and I only pray that someday Delilah will be as good as Shiva.