Day 25

Oh the angst of having to leave a new pup! This is what we are facing this weekend. We had made plans a month ago, down in "The City." Up here, there is only one "city" on the planet, which is New York City. It is referred to as "The City" and everyone else in the world is expected to know exactly which city "The City" actually is. Actually, our plans are not technically in "The City," they are on "The Island" which again is the only island on the planet and refers to Long Island, or "Lawngiyaland" if you are from there.

So we had plans there...and can't bail out of them...which means I have to leave my Bear with a dog sitter!

Oh God!

Actually, its not that bad. You see, I've been working on this all week during our walks down the hill. In truth, I've been working it since the day we got Bear because I knew then that this dreaded day would come and we would need someone to take care of him while we had to go to "The City," or in reality, "The Island."

Right after we got Bear, he met a young man down the hill. He's a neighbor which means that he lives within five miles of this house. From my perspective, here, everything and everyone is either down the hill or up the hill and this young man is "Down the hill, Roy," which is not his real name but will suffice for now.

Down the hill Roy is one of the kids here. In fact, he is what we on "The Hill," which again is the only "hill" on the planet and the entire community knows this even though this entire town is in the middle of the mountains, call a "ridge runner." He is a kid that was born to these hills and we've watched him over the years do all of the "ridge runner kid stuff" that "ridge runner kids" are apt to do here. Its been fun watching him grow into the young man he is becoming and to introduce him to Bear.

From the moment Roy and Bear met, the two were trouble twins. Bear absolutely adores Roy, who absolutely adores Bear back. Its a mutual fan club and if either are in the vicinity of the other, they can't help but go to each other for a greeting. Roy has spent the past few days walking with Bear, Willie and me so that the dogs can get a feel for his presence and Bear doesn't dislocate Roy's shoulder while going out to go hurry. Roy now knows how to handle Bear and does pretty well, or at least I thought so until this afternoon when Roy came up to the house to get the final rundown on what to do and where things are.

Bear and Willie saw Roy come to the house and instantly decided that this was going to be BIG fun! It really reminded me a lot of when my kids were younger and the babysitter would show up...

Roy spent about an hour here walking with Bear and getting Will calmed down, which never quite happened, but long enough for me to see that Roy's older brother is going to be a necessary component to this equation as well. In time, like a year or two, I think that Roy will be able to handle the dogs alone fine, but right now, they see this as an opportunity to see how much stuff they can get away with because "Mom always lets us do it this way..." Yadda yadda yadda...

So we leave out tomorrow night and we get home Sunday morning. Hopefully, Roy, the house and the dogs will all survive...

Happy wandering!

The Writer...and her dog, Bear