Helpful Ben Takes A Hike

You all met helpful Ben before when he threw a party for Lindy Loo and her brother, Emmett. Well, Ben is still helpful and he thought that Lindy Loo and Swede William, and especially their old servant Patience might need to get out of the city and take a hike.

So he helped his mom Heather get all ready, and he even wore his big boy underpants. He brought his Old Dog Edgar, and his Young Dog Emmett, who is Ben's good friend. Ben helped print out the directions and the whole kit and caboodle headed north to Ferne Cliffe State Park, in Illinois.

Before they all started hiking, Ben peed right on a leaf and the grass. (It was okay, because we were in Nature, not in civilization.) That was very helpful. His mom was glad that he did not need to change clothes.


Once they started hiking in earnest, (they were in Illinois, but they were also earnest), Ben realized that the stroller was going to be a lot lighter without a Ben in it. "I'll walk," he said. And he did. The whole way.

Ben grabbed his mommy's hand and helped her escape from being squished on the head by a giant tree!

Ben helped his mommy from tipping over when he showed her the cool stuff. Ben's mommy is a little tippy these days, since his baby brother is taking up a lot of room in her belly.

Ben was showing his mommy the gargantuan rock. Ben's mommy smacked her own forehead in disbelief and amazement.

Ben helped his mommy and his baby brother and his Old Dog Edgar and his Young Dog Emmett who is his friend through the muddy slippery part. He held on extra tight, which helped his mommy be extra brave.

They made it! They thought this was where Ferne Cliffe State Park got its Ferne Cliffe name, though they didn't know where the extra ees (Ferne Cliffe) came from. This cliff was covered with ferns. (You can click to enlarge and use your back button to come back. Ben said so.)

Ben helped his baby brother feel like he was part of the gang by sitting on him!

Ben helped show his mommy and his dogs the way.

Then Ben showed his mommy the slimy stuff under the biggest rock in the world. Young Dog Emmett didn't care to see, and Old Dog Edgar thought they should have a snack.

Ben helped by posing handsomely in front of a Big Dark Crevice. Ben is not only helpful. Ben is brave.

Ben realized that his Old Dog Edgar was thinking about a little snack. He gave each dog a dog treat, and then got out the graham crackers. He gave each dog a graham cracker, and then he gave his mommy one (who shared it with his brother in her belly) and he even gave Lindy Loo and William's old servant two! (Maybe three, but who was counting.)

This will be hard for you to believe, but Ben went down all of those wooden steps far away, and then he went up all of these wooden steps right here, by himself without help! Yes, that's right, he did. His mommy and Lindy Loo and William's servant carried the stroller down and up and Emmett the Young Dog decided this was an opportune time to try to romance his sister Lindy Loo. He got a head bop from Lindy Loo's servant. He decided it was a bad idea after all.

Ben even made his own sandwich in the picnic place after that long hilly hike. He ran up and down the hill and helped lead his Old Dog Edgar back to the car.

On the long ride home, Ben sang his A B C's and 1 2 3's and made everyone in the car just a little smarter.

Anyone who got to take a hike with helpful Ben is lucky lucky lucky, and they know it.

hug your hounds and any helpful Bens you know!

The Sun Is Shining!

Perspective. It's a good thing.

The food for the hungry program here in my town is not open on Christmas day. But they will need help on Friday, the 21st, delivering food to families. I can do that! So I will.

Last night I got to help a little dog get back to her breeder. She was in a home that did not work out. I was a tiny part of her trip but it felt great. And we got to be helpful in two ways at once. Our very dear friends were going to Nashville yesterday to spend the night and catch their plane (to Mexico, lucky ducks) in the morning. This meant their daughter would have to do the five plus hour round trip. (At two and a half hours, Nashville is our nearest major airport.) So I said hey! I'm driving a dog to Nashville, you are welcome aboard.

Have I mentioned that Bill is a saint? He is. When he heard that I was driving the little dog to Nashville, he announced he was going along. He said, "I couldn't think of a single thing I'd rather do than spend five hours in the car with my wife. Well, I could, but the first one is too expensive, I can't do the second one anymore, and the third is unavailable. Fourth on the list of things I'd like to do isn't bad!" So now, with the added bonus of a two and a half hour visit in the car with our very dear friends, the trip was looking like a fun time.

About an hour before the ETA of the little dog (we were to meet at a gas station out near the Interstate, with the owner calling as she got close) I checked my phone messages. There was a cheerful message from a very elderly friend who lives alone, and I called her back. The phone rang, and made a connection, but the very elderly friend never said "hello". I could hear the TV in the background, but no elderly friend. I kept shouting "Hello" getting more and more concerned. "If you can hear me and you are in trouble just push a number on the phone. I'll come right over."

Nothing.

"I'm going over there," I told Bill. He kindly said he would hang by the phone and wait for the travelling dog's owner to call. My elderly friend lives about fifteen minutes from us. This was worrisome. If she were indeed in trouble, I would have a dog waiting at a gas station, very dear friends needing to make an international flight, and me waiting for Emergency Services. Oh Lord.

As I drove, I hit redial on my cell phone. Busy. But on the third try, when I had only gone a few blocks, my elderly friend cheerfully answered, "Hello, Patience! How are you? The sun shined today, wasn't it so beautiful?" Oh yes indeed it was glorious, I agreed. I turned around, not wanting to embarrass her by telling her what had transpired, and was still talking with her as I came back into our house. I smiled and nodded to Bill, and his warm smile added to my glow of relief. He has yet to meet my elderly friend, and still he cares just as much about her as I do. A saint he is.

We took Delia along for company for the little dog, which made Delia feel Ever So Special! I strapped two crates in the back of Bill's car, as the Whippet Wagon can accommodate nine whippets, but only two humans. We were riding in style. All the style that a white Buick Rendezvous could muster. (For a chuckle, read the first paragraph of that link.) The Vous. It looks a lot like a Gremlin on steroids or like an accidental cross-breeding between the Michelin Man and a Fed Ex truck, but there is tons of room in the back for large pieces of artwork, and on this trip, for two crates and our very dear friends' luggage. Got to love the Vous!



Bill and I picked up the little dog. She was heart-wrenchingly worried and frightened. You just couldn't help but apply the word traumatized. She purely didn't notice when I took her lead from her owner. I cuddled her (also unnoticed) and kissed her sweet head, and told her she was on her way home. Delia was very polite and welcomed her to the Vous. The little dog seemed relieved to see the safety of the crate and curled up and didn't make a sound for the next three hours. Not a peep. I don't even think she moved.



We had such a fun ride. Bill tortured us by saying, "I can't remember the third line of the Davy Crockett song. 'Born on a mountain top in Tennessee, greenest state in the land of the free, dah dah da dah da dah dah dah dee, kilt him a b'ar when he was only three! Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier.' What the heck is that line?" (The answer is: "raised in the woods so he knew ev'ry tree," but we never got it, just kept singing Davy, Davy Crockett, king of the wild frontier in our brains.) Just about the time when we got the Davy Crockett song out of our heads, Bill said, just out of the blue, "Who'd have thought that Sinatra would have had a hit about a rubber tree plant?" We weren't talking about Sinatra; we weren't even talking about music. I'm still stuck with "Whoops there goes another rubber tree, Whoops there goes another rubber tree, Whoops there goes another rubber tree plant!" We all laughed and laughed.



We dropped off our very dear friends at their hotel, and then at yet another gas station, we met the next person involved with getting the little dog back home. This person was a delight! She brought her beautiful greyhound along for company. I had to pry the little dog out of my crate, which was sad, and we put her in the very nice person's toasty warm van. The greyhound wagged a welcome, and the little dog curled up in yet another safe crate. This very nice person will keep her until Saturday, when the last leg of the journey to her breeder and her home can be made. This very nice person had ANGEL written all over every single beautiful inch of her being.



I will be so happy to hear that the little dog is home. And happy again.



Today, the sun is shining again. The dogs and I will bundle up and go for a walk. I will count my many, many blessings. It is winter, and I am not crazy about the darkness and the cold. But I have so many riches in my life. My husband, the saint. My son who is safe and loved. Bill's daughters and our adorable grandchildren who thrive.



And these nine sterling souls who grace my life. Beautiful, generous, cherished dogs who keep me grounded and humble and grateful and fulfilled. Who bring me to the most treasured friendships.



Perspective. It's a grand thing.


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Arrived

[Warning: tonight's entry is distressingly journal-like. I'm too tired to make it into a story. I will probably end up deleting these and making them into one better organized, more fun tale when I get home. Apologies in the mean time.]

This hotel is lovely. The dogs kept checking behind the dresser when we first came in, hoping for more stinky seafood. Thank goodness, they were disappointed. Mama Pajama's breathing looks the smallest bit labored to me tonight. I hope I am seeing things. She is comfortable and resting and wondering where her bedtime snacky is. It is insanely warm and humid here; that front should blow over tonight.

I wish I had remembered my camera. The fall colors in the mountains in eastern Tennessee and southern Virginia were spectacular. And, having grown up in the Berkshire Mountains in western Massachusetts, I'm quite the fall foliage snob. But it was the best autumn scenery I've ever witnessed. The trees went from deep green to brilliant golden to fiery orange and crimson. I bought some new windshield wiper blades, and of course the rain immediately stopped. If only I had bought them before my trip to Minnesota and Wisconsin; all that flooding would have been prevented. I'm sorry, Minnesota and Wisconsin.

We took a detour to visit my son and to meet his beautiful girlfriend. The young 'uns got to meet their first horse, nose to nose. (Whyyyy did I forget the camera... ?) They thought it was pretty funny in a let's run and spin and woof kind of way.

The new dog food is making them fart. Five fartin' dogs in a van for seventeen hours. Woo-hoo, my sinuses are clear!

I'm being silly. Too tired to write. I apologize for this drivel.


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On The Road

We're on a trip... last minute decision to go after agonizing whether or not to for a month. This story will be uncharacteristically abbreviated, as the computer battery is running low and I left the chord out in the van.

The dogs and I travel quite a bit, as there's not much to do in our part of the world. We used to have a wonderful camper, but we sold it. Then I tried putting a bed and a portable toilet in our van. (More on that later, fear not!) Now this is the first trip trying hotels again. And I'm SURE it's the last.

We left our house at 3:30 in the afternoon, after finishing up the last orders, and mucking out the van, and filling the crates with lots of fresh blankets and chew bones. A rather tearful hug to Bill and Very Old Dog and the others who stayed home; I do detest having to travel without Bill and the Other Dogs. The older I get the more I hate it.

I loaded up the elated Mama Pajama, Sam I Am, Swede William, and Lindy Loo, and drove the eight blocks to dear Heather's house to kidnap Lindy Loo's litter brother, Emmett, as I am wont to do. As soon as I pulled away from the curb at our house it started to pour down rain. Again. We'd been having tornado watches all day. It was ninety degrees with thirty mph winds. Freaky for October.

I kidnapped Emmett and fell down the porch steps leaving Heather's house. Drat. Now I was sopping wet on my bottom. And that last cortisone injection in my shoulder and the two weeks of physical therapy? Undone. But I did not let go of Emmett's leash, good Human! I sat in a puddle in the downpour and contemplated if I were capable of getting up, decided I was, and off we went again.

Then it started to hail.

Eek, this computer battery is going to die. Fast forward: it's 1:15 AM. On the fifth attempt we find a hotel with a supposed non-smoking room, for only $80 plus tax. There is not one single blade of grass anywhere. There is a junk yard dog tied in the lot next to the hotel. (A not so Super 8.) The room smelled just horrid, and I thought maybe it was a smoking room.

Until the dogs found the whole clam, shell and all, behind the dresser. Someone had carry out steamers, and one apparently went overboard. And it was long enough ago to stink.

GROOOOSSSSSSSSS! Gross me out. Gross-o-mundo.

Now if the little dog in the next room would stop barking, I'll get to sleep and decide that this is all hysterically funny.

Six hours of driving down, ten more to go!

Later... I think I'm going to dream of the ocean.





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