Chapter 36 - A Life Time After Time

It’s a little blurry, but here’s another picture of our pup, Buck. If a dog could be a soul mate, then Buck was definitely mine. She knew my moods, when I needed her right by my side, when I wasn’t feeling well. And she always knew I was her safe place when she was being teased by her pop. She was very shy and would stand behind me if she wanted the teasing to stop. But she also knew the teasing was never hurtful. My last post was part 1 of her life, and below is part 2. I hope you will enjoy it and perhaps be a little curious about all the pups that came into our lives and made for a much sweeter and complete life for us.

~~ CHAPTER 36 ~~

Hello, again. It’s me, Buck. I couldn’t wait any longer to tell you the rest of my story. As I was telling you before, there was a big truck putting all of the things in the house in that truck.  At first I was scared they would put me in there if I didn’t stay close by Mother, but that never happened.  Instead, I was in the car in the back seat with a couple of cozy blankets to lay on.  We would be in the car for a while, and then we would stop for a short while so Mother and Father could eat.  I didn’t like when they left me in the car and would holler the whole time. I wanted to be with them, but they could never figure that out.

At night, we would stop to sleep in these little rooms. I was hoping these places weren’t going to be our forever home because they were so small. During the day, we would stop, and I got to get out and run around for a while, but I never went too far away from Mother or Father. Once we drove up to this window where a lady gave Father a bag that smelled so good. It was their lunch, but the lady at the window held out a cookie for me. I couldn’t believe my eyes! I looked at Mother to make sure it was okay to take this cookie. I was so excited she said it was okay, and then I buried it under my blanket to save for later. It was too special to eat right away.

I was starting to wonder how long we were going to be spending our days in the car when all of a sudden, Father put the car into this room and closed the door behind us. We all got out, and when Father opened the door to the inside of this building, I ran inside and knew we were home. This place was huge—so much bigger than our other house. I ran downstairs, then upstairs, checking everything out. I stood at the top of the stairs, and I was smiling so big, I thought I would burst. It was the best feeling in the world. I think we all slept pretty well that night.

The next day, that truck that was at our other house was now in front of this house, and people started bringing stuff inside. That’s when I knew for sure we weren’t going anywhere ever again.  It took Mother some time to put everything away, but once all of that was done, the house couldn’t have been more perfect. There was a big chair in front of one of the windows where I would lay during the day and daydream or watch cars go by, although there weren’t that many cars on our street. I didn’t care. There were birds to watch, people walking by, and every day in the afternoon, I could see Father’s car down the street when he would come home from work. 

Once in a while, Mother and Father would go away together, and I had to go to Camp Sucksalot. Yes, there is such a camp at my new home, too. I would bark and hoot a lot when I was there because I wanted so badly to be back at home. This one time, I barked so much, I lost my voice. It hurt to bark, but when Mother and Father came to get me, I was so happy that I kept right on barking, even though it hurt. After a few days of being quiet, it got better.

I was always extra shy around Father, so when he would go away, I was very content and happy to be alone with Mother. Father would tease me all the time, and he has this knack for finding some new way to tease me. My entire life, he would come up with something completely different for me to figure out. It was never anything that hurt, because Father would never hurt an animal in any way. But it would be confusing for me. When Mother would go away, he wouldn’t tease me at all, which was so nice. I would miss Mother terribly, but then again, it was good to avoid that darn teasing. Like I said, it was never anything that hurt me or scared me. I would play along sometimes, and Father always gave me lots of pets in the end, so it was worth it, especially since it made him so happy.

Mother and Father were sad that Barley didn’t live long enough to come to this new forever home. If I’m to be honest, I missed her too. We had so much fun playing and snuggling up together for naps. Without her, I  lived a pretty quiet life in this new home, but it was wonderful. As I was getting older, it was harder for me to play much anyway. Over time, my aches and pains were getting worse, but I didn’t complain. Mother and Father did their absolute best to keep me comfortable. For a while, they gave me some medicine that took some of the pain away, but after a while, it wasn’t  working very well.

One day I could hear Mother and Father talking about going away. I knew that meant I would be going to camp. This time I didn’t care. You see, I had a plan. Us dogs know that when we stop eating or even moving, humans understand we are saying it’s time to let us go. We also get that sometimes our humans hang on to us a little longer than they should. We are okay with that because truly we don’t want to leave either. But when our time comes, it comes. I didn’t want Mother or Father to have to make that decision, so I made it for them. I loved them that much. While they were away, I stopped eating at camp. I knew the humans there would know what to do. I said my good-byes to Mother and Father before they left for their trip. Good-byes are never easy, but if there was a way to make it easier for them, I felt this was the way. I knew they would be sad for a while, just like they were with Sandy and Barley. I would join them across that bridge and get to work on bringing them a new companion, because of course, that’s what we do. It will be such a joyous day when we are all together again, but for now, their joy will be that Cocker Spaniel that will be coming into their lives very soon. She had a hard life living with two other families who couldn’t keep her. All of us up here knew exactly where she needed to be. She’ll not only fall into the best forever home, she’ll even get a new name—one she was meant to have all along!