Knowing the Majesty of Love and Helplessness

A month and a half ago, I was wrapping up my 200th Pilot Butte Repeat (PBR) of the season.  It was my ‘B Goal’ for the year, so I decided to take a moment to appreciate all of the work that went into building fitness in 2025... regardless of my ability to capitalize on it as I had hoped.  This pause was a single decision catalyzed by the bazillion decisions before it that; had any one decision been made differently, my life would not be as rich as it is today.

My award for finishing my 200th PBR was meeting Sprig.

If I hadn’t reached out to a new coach who encouraged me to run big vert to prepare for a high altitude race; if I hadn’t tanked my run season by enduring too much work stress; if I hadn’t pivoted to running an excessive number of PBR’s as a backup objective; if I hadn’t been filled with grief for E as I entered the season of her passing; if a race director hadn’t told me of his Saturday race, encouraging to join… which resulted in me moving my long run day to a Friday to avoid the mass of people running said race; if I hadn’t met a fellow thru hiker with her rescue border collie a year prior on a casual run with my Little Dude; if I hadn’t paused to commemorate that 200th PBR; if I hadn’t looked up to see a beautiful border wearing an “adopt me” vest at the summit of that final PBR; if I hadn’t given in to the urge to talk to his foster mom… that same thru hiker I met a year prior; if she hadn’t, as I tried to walk away, told me about an adoption event the following day, where this handsome fellow would likely be swooped; if I hadn’t told Ryan he was a right fit for my unfriendly (yet perfect) aussie; if Ryan had ever said ‘no’ to any dog… ever; If I hadn’t listened to my building anxiety as I watched him at this event… knowing that I didn’t want anyone else to take him home, knowing that I wanted to protect him from the commotion of that event. Knowing.

The day we brought Sprig home.

Sprig

(Aka Sprigalig, Sprigalicious, Spriggy, Spriggand)

Gotcha Day: November 28th, 2025

Approx. 9 months old & 28 lbs.

Foster: Kat & HDRescue

If any one of these moments had been different, we would not have filled the border-collie-sized hole in our life with Sprig.  No dog could ever replace E, yet, another day, I will tell you how something in me healed the day we brought him home.

Sprig out on a long-line, forest walk.

We don’t have a lot of background on Sprig.  He is ~10 months old now and was being fostered by a local rescue.  He was in Idaho before being transported to Bend and Ryan ‘thinks’ he heard that Sprig was in a shelter prior to that.  He was several pounds underweight when he came home and weighed just 28 lbs.  He doesn’t carry significant trauma beyond the fact that he will flinch if you move a certain way - as if he knows what it means to be hit.  The fact that humans have the capacity to strike baby animals should break your heart, and, with Sprig sweetly cuddled up to my right as I type, it breaks mine.  He was fairly shut down when he came home to us and was afraid to “dog” - he wouldn’t sniff any sniffs and avoided engaging Huck & Finn.  That said, he shedded that stress fairly quickly.  I announced Sprig’s addition to the family to a friend via a text of “YOLO” and a photo of Sprig.  I’m a hopelessly intentional and serious person, so this friend knew this was a joke.  Little did I know that that casual text would become the way I would see Sprig.  Now that he is more settled, he lives in the moment with intensity and spontaneity, caring very little about the outcome of a situation - even if it means his own bodily harm.   He is an assertive player, assertive cuddler, assertive in WANTING HIS DINNER NOW.  He is a little too assertive in the way he hazes Huck, which hurts my heart.  We think he will settle with age though, and they’ll be more of the same speed in a year+.

Sprig and Huck, out on a forest run. They are both more excited than they look.

As for the work ahead, Sprig has separation anxiety.  He is crate trained and will sleep in his crate in the bedroom calmly at night.  He will bark for HOURS in his crate when we leave the house and I do fear that he will use his teeth to try to get himself out of his crate.  He is also an attention barker, which absolutely grates on my nerves.  He alert barks at EVERYTHING.  A single bark before he checks in with his humans and this behavior seems very healthy for a pup who is still rebuilding confidence after instability.

The double-cuddle is now a standard operating procedure.

There are a thousand more little details that I could tell you about what I have learned about Sprig in the past 6 weeks. A thousand details that I could tell you about for how learning to love Sprig, has made me appreciate and love my Little Dude even more.  And, a thousand details that I could tell you about myself as living in love and service for a new pup has allowed me to see and learn even more about myself.  The main theme though, is love.  I would not and could not see and know love of this magnitude had E not forever changed my life.

‘Your loving does not know its majesty,

until it knows it’s helplessness.’

-Rumi