This past year, when my husband and I adopted a second dog, we thought we were prepared – new bowls, new toys, new bed. We did however overlook a major potential problem. Shelby, our rather large chocolate lab mix freely roamed our backyard without incident, but our fear was that new Lil’ Louie (aptly named as he is quite small) would scoot through our hedges first chance he got. As my daily morning sprints became tiresome, I realized we needed a fenced in backyard. Louie could easily leap over a small 12 inch garden fence and the alternative traditional 4 foot fence would all but hide our lovely hedges (which I maintain with great care). Yes, I was having a Goldilocks moment. What I needed was a fence that was “just right”, about 30 inches high. Well, I did what I always do – shopped online. Why not? I have my groceries delivered, I have my clothes styled and delivered (love that), why not find my “just right” fence online. What I quickly discovered was that over 100 feet of fencing is rather expensive and not that impressive.

That’s when, out of the blue, I heard my late Dad’s voice saying, “You can do this!” What? You want me to build a fence? As a kid, I paid close attention when helping my dad fix things around the house so I knew I could do this, but did I want to? So after crunching some numbers, and realizing I could justify buying some new tools (I love new tools), I decided to get to work. Weekend after weekend I cut and nailed, cut and nailed. Finally, it was finished and I have to admit that it looked pretty darn good. I gave myself a solid, “Look what I did Dad” moment. My hands and back took a beating as did my social life, but knowing our newest family member would be safe in the yard made the job all the more satisfying. So although my Dad has been gone 10 years ago this month, his voice and encouragement live on. #happyfathersday #happypride