It has been a year since our pack formally came into existence. In that time we have seen a lot happen in our personal lives, growing from our experiences and becoming wiser people. Puphood has come to mean a lot to us all in the pack. What it is to be in a pack has come to mean much too.
The pack is a place as a well as a group. A locale that may not have a geographic centre - it is roughly somewhere on the east coast of Australia - but definitely has an emotional home. Its boundaries are not walls keeping others out, they are fences with gates to let the right ones in. Our pack has experienced a very public life since we have embraced the new media digital age. We are still learning how to navigate the eddys and tides of the great "others" in the pup world out there. Being popular means little to me, yet I have come to appreciate the responsibility our pack has to the community. I started the site to communicate to our pack, and it has become a reference for others too. We are all now conscious of that and considerate of what we can add to pupdom for the future.
The pack is a family that has no parents or children, a band of brothers that does not depend on gender. We have found that being in the pack is something different, and special. It is at once a deep abiding friendship of love, yet also like a family you can feel all kinds of conflicting emotions at your packmate. There's a shared activity and pursuit that is personal and intimate, puphood, and yet every pup is different under the hood. As things have happened over the year, the emotional support we have given one another means a lot. It is not easily quantified in words.
As Owner of the the Sirius Pack, I have found it a rewarding challenge, one I hope to rise to meet every day. Six pups, going on seven, and our pack is strong and diverse and talented, but not always easy to manage. One of our pups is currently on probation and getting his shit sorted, and having to put a pup "outside" has been a very hard thing to do. The pack demands its own healthy rules is what I have most definitely learnt.
You're not a parent, nor a coach, nor a buddy, nor a lover, nor a best friend - as owner of a pup, you can often be expected to be all of those. I know that I cannot wear all those hats - I like to remind pups that I am not there to be fuckmaster general and have every pup as a sex toy. Given the pack size of six, I would be exhausted and dead of a heart attack within a day. I got my limitations both physically and emotionally. The pack gives me strength though, and reminds me each day that not only do I have a lot to do for them, I have a pack - they would never let me fall or be alone in the wilderness.
Looking to the future, I hope to see us together in distant years and looking back with fondness and wonder at the journey we took. I am amazed at this past year, and the richness that knowing these pups has brought me. For our future selves, a note:
"look to the evidence of how the journey has helped you grow in so many ways"