WHO RESCUES WHO?

It’s been two months since I've posted anything to OakintheSeed. I do not blame anyone for not clicking here anymore just to see the same photo of Bailey and me sitting on the floor at the Best Friends Adoption Event this past June. It’s seems to be the same old/same old at this blog.

But I have good news! Bailey has been adopted! She went home to live with a couple similar in age in human years to her ten. A couple arrived who had adored the huskies they had owned throughout their years together but when the last one died, decided they were too long in the tooth to start over with a puppy and besides, it was time to sit back and relax and not worry about feeding the dog, walking the dog, bathing the dog, clipping the dog, driving to the vet with the dog and finally, mourning the death of a dog. But apparently, they were not over the loving of a dog. When they spotted Bailey’s husky mix profile on RBARI’s Petfinder page, they went to meet her and a few weeks later, brought her home forever.

Bailey and I were pals. We spent part of every weekend together for months, walking the frozen paths of parks or strolling around the lake at home. At the end of each outing, I would climb into the back of the station wagon with her for a snack, sip a cup of tea and watch the world go by. Bailey gazed out at the world until one day she turned and looked at me as if seeing me for the first time. Until then, I was just another human on the other end of the leash. But that day, sitting in the afternoon sun, she looked me right in the eye, patted my leg twice with her paw as if testing the waters, then slowly, deliberately laid down on my lap and sighed.

CONNECTION.

We continued our weekly outings. Each one ended the same way with “Hang out time.” We did nothing but sit together. My mind would drift to a place without words. Bailey alternately stretched a front leg on my lap or dozed on the quilt in the winter sun. Slowly, we walked each other over a bridge that reconnected her to the richness of the human spirit, and me to rediscovering the beauty of meeting another soul in another world. Bailey led me back to the path of my own animal spirit. I will be forever grateful to her.

But while I miss Bailey, she made sure I would not return to my dogless ways.

Meet Toby…a four-month old Golden Retriever mix now in his forever home...with me.