Golden

Mary-Ann Sontag October 11, 2022

Today is a really big day. A rare day in the life of a Bernese Mountain Dog. A GOLDEN Birthday. Today Harper B for Birthday is 11 on the 11th.

I want to begin by remembering Harper’s siblings and our very special friend, Terri Zimmerman, who owned the father of the H Moon Litter and never forgot a birthday…

The last birthday card Terri sent to Harper

Holden, Lainey, Auggie, Heidi, Zeke, Mesa — and Terri. I wish they were all here with us still.

These older birthdays are bittersweet as we miss those who are gone and celebrate the one who is left.

Harper is healthy and well and enjoyed her birthday.

We went for a walk — just the two of us…

I gave her the present of no birthday bath — she appreciated that! She was not required to share her birthday treat.

I know well how fortunate I am to be celebrating this day with Harper B for Blessed. Golden, indeed.

Better Than Okay

Mary-Ann Sontag October 1, 2022

So many of you wonderful, supportive people understand that 2022 has been a challenging year.

Thank you to everyone who has held me in their thoughts.

I am doing surprisingly well. And I do mean surprisingly — I know the extent of all the things and that means I also know it is kind of a miracle that I don’t sit in bed eating cookie dough all day.

I don’t. Not at all.

I have continued to be very, very intentional about thriving.

The dogs have been key. They needed me to be okay.

They gave me reasons to celebrate…

…and they give me dreams to dream. #nlitter2023

I learned to bake sourdough bread with a starter my sister delivered from California…

I have a garden!

And today I will ride my 800th Peloton ride…

My friends and family have been incredibly supportive — my sister sent me a collection of encouraging post-it notes. I love them.

And I write at msontag.com

Life with Dogs. Thank goodness for Life with Dogs.

Half

Mary-Ann Sontag September 30, 2022

Dear Daughter, inspired by the fun of the Missoula Half Marathon we did together in June, signed us up for a virtual Half Marathon.

A virtual Half Marathon doesn’t mean you sit at your computer and watch your avatar do 13.1 miles while you eat chocolate cake and ice cream. Although you could, I suppose. Your Virtue Scoreboard would suffer but the worthy charity would still get the donation and you wouldn’t be sore.

I guess it should probably be called, “DIY Half Marathon” or maybe “Honor System Half Marathon” because you just do 13.1 miles, log them into the website, and await your swag.

Yesterday was my official race day.

Since I have not been running lately — and it was basically a DIY Half Marathon — I decided I would do it my way. This meant the only zooming was on my computer between stretches of walking — I layered the miles into my work day, and walked all of them — with members of my DIY Half Marathon pacer team.

First up was 4+ miles with Capella — here she is encouraging me to speed things up…