I decided to share the story of our first Valentine’s Day together. We had been dating for 6 months and already I knew I wanted to marry him — it just took him a lot longer to figure it out. Duck had a cocker spaniel named Rio when we met. He had Rio since Rio was 6 weeks old — and at the point we met, I think Rio was around 2 years old.

Rio and Duck had a strong bond between them. Rio was very smart and would stay by Duck’s feet whenever he was home. So, on our first Valentine’s Day together, I had great plans to make it a special day. I bought balloons and a card. I took off work early and went to Duck’s home to pick up Rio. See my plan was to put Rio in my truck and take him to visit Duck at work. Duck worked at a huge local university. He had an office to himself — well, full of computers — on the bottom floor and close to an outside door at the back of the building.

It was all perfect in my head. I got Rio out of the house and into the truck, no problems. As I was driving to Duck’s work, I thought about parking. The few times I’ve had to go with Duck to his office, we would park in a loading zone because it was after hours. During the day, I knew I wouldn’t be able to park there.

I found a parking space and put Rio on his leash. We got out of the truck and started walking. I think I forgot to mention that Rio was not a very friendly dog — so every time someone would come up to us talking about how cute he was, I’d warn them that he might bite. Hundreds of people stopped and petted him along the way, and he didn’t even growl at any of them.

Now the only problem I was having was trying to find the building where Duck’s office was — and did I mention I was dressed nice? As in heels and all? Yep, walking a dog around a big college campus where all the buildings look the same. I didn’t even know the building name. So we walked around and never really found it. I was frustrated that my plan had not gone so smoothly.

We walked back to the truck and I managed to get Rio up there. I took him back to Duck’s house and parked in the driveway. You know how I mentioned that Rio was a very smart dog? Well, the whole way there I had been explaining to Rio that we were going to see Duck. I’m sure Rio was quite confused to have been back home and not seen Duck.

I opened my door and waited for Rio to walk across my lap and jump out (which he normally did). He stopped with his front paws on my left leg — looking out the door. His head was right in front of my face. I tried petting him and talking to him to get him down, but something I said must have made him mad. He bit me. My lip to be exact. He had caught my top lip and bottom lip — toward the side. Kinda hard to explain really — guess you had to be there and no, there are no pictures. I was very upset. I was not in the mood for pictures.

On my first Valentine’s Day with Duck, my busted lip swelled, bruised and abused, kept me from even getting a nice Valentine’s Day kiss. Not to mention all the questions at work for the next week about whether or not Duck smacked me around on V-day. It was definitely a memorable V-day. For those of you wondering if Rio lived past that day, he did. He died this past October at the age of 14.

Today’s Valentine: Duck read my blog post yesterday and actually listened — well, partially He did get me a card, but he didn’t get flowers! YAY! I am really blessed to be married to him. He did a great job with Callie too — he got her a stuffed animal (even though he thinks she has way too many!) and a cute card. She loved them both! Thanks for the card Duck I love ya!