From time to time, I'll be catching up with someone who knows about Bailey and they'll ask 'is he still working'? This is a valid question and one I'm always happy to answer. It always makes me reflect on how long he's been doing his job and how essential it is to work together to ensure that he continues working hard. I read somewhere that the average shelf life of a DAD is one year and it makes me think about why. I think its probably like anything, if you put the work in you usually reap the rewards. And having a DAD is hard work. I felt this more so recently when I spent a week feeling out of sorts, stressed to the max and fed up. I'd been sleeping badly (which is given for parents caring for their T1 kids) and it had been a hectic week, and everytime I sat down to try and take a breather, Bailey would alert me. Instead of responding to him with my normal enthusiasm, I found myself thinking 'just leave me alone, I don't want to get up, I'm tired'. And as I sat there, taking longer than normal to respond, I wondered how long it would take of me ignoring him for him to eventually give up and stop alerting. Or perhaps he wouldn't, he would remain as is and keep trying. He has a stubborn streak, so I'm guessing it's the latter. But as I stared into his soft brown eyes it didn't take me long to snap out of it and put the 't' back in team. I'm fortunate to have the support of the rest of the team, the 'e', 'a' & 'm', to pick up the slack sometimes so that I can take a break. But I've noticed it doesn't matter who gives him the reward, he will always come back and stand in front of me and wait for me to give him a pat and acknowledge his good work with kind words. It's then that I remind myself that he's not doing it for the food, he's doing it for me. Bailey really is the 'm' in team, he's our MAGIC...