There are some walks we all go on together still. Sedate strolls in shady woods with a friend, and around the block. Forests with no hills. But here’s a thing of Ruby, today, this week, this month. She’s old. Her back legs wobble and shake, and when the sun is bright it hurts her eyes and for some reason her legs wobble more in the sun too. To walk all the way to the ocean is not so easy for her, maybe she can do it on a foggy morning but the speed at which she goes now, it’s not fast.
She needs to creep. And I want her to creep. Sometimes she falls down goes boom if we go too fast for her. And she crashes into the curb. I want her to go exactly as fast as she needs to. The rest of the day she likes to sleep tucked away in a crate or in her special blue chair. That chair’s reserved only for Ruby. NOBODY ELSE get to sit there. She gets to have something nice.
Her sniffer works good. She wishes Gary made her pancakes every day, she loves the smell of pancakes and then we cut them up and she even likes the blueberries. Ruby gets the most.
I hated that this day would come, when she has to stay home. But everybody else needs to go, we all need to walk and run. I’ve taken to walking everyone else down to the tourist dog beach. Gustavo loves it there, SO MANY DOGS! This is his thing. He’s an ambassador, a concierge, he’s networking and grooving, he’s an international DJ and the drinks are all on Gustavo! He runs up and down and pees on sand and no dog isn’t his best friend.
Banksy and Otterpop and me go to the anti social end and throw balls. If she has her ball, Otterpop can even deal with asshat jack russells that bark in her face. Banksy doesn’t even notice that there’s 50 other dogs there, running up and down for balls and mixing it up. She has a mission. She’s turned into a pretty easy dog, tourist beach, no problem. Dog park, no big. Walk along West Cliff, not a problem. Some days she runs next to my cruiser, we go down to check the surf.
I wish it was always all of us. I thought maybe this would never happen, the day she has to stay home alone. But it has, and she’ll get used to it. I hide treats in her special blue chair, and sneak the other dogs out the back door. I remember when I had to start leaving Timmy, the beginning of the end. I want Ruby to stay with us forever, waiting for us to come home, sound asleep in her blue chair.
waiting in the blue chair is kinda sad and kinda good. my last friend didn't get a chance to wait in the blue chair. 12 days and poof she was gone. so the blue chair…. the blue chair is a happy chair.
valpig
Sounds like she is happy to snooze in her blue chair and dream of pancakes while everyone else runs at the beach. For an old dog, a short walk goes a long way, and she knows that when she wakes up from her nap, you'll all be back to share all the smells with her.