A First

 

Bailey at one year old

Back when Bailey was a feisty young dog, we were running the cross-country trail at Black Mountain in the late afternoon heat of July. At one point I turned up a hill to head toward the alpine slopes, but Bailey just stopped. He looked at me as I continued running, and then he headed back to the ski area's parking lot. He lay down at the back of my car in the shade and waited for me. The mountain manager, Jim, thought I might have had the big one, but a few minutes later I appeared running down the alpine slope. Bailey never did that again, and I would never again just let him head off on his own. 

Today, I warmed up the van to take it out for a 30- to 45-minute spin to charge up the chassis battery and the house batteries. I take it out once a week or so, depending on the weather. I brought Bailey out onto the driveway once the van was warmed up; I opened the sliding door to let him in; he just stood there looking from a distance. I walked toward him to guide him to the van but he walked away to the garage door. A first. No ride was the message. 

Inside the house, I fixed him a bone and left him chewing away while I drove up toward Andover. When I got back, he was happy to see me. 

Bailey's back hips hurt him. Jumping in to the car or van is tough. Even jumping up on the couch is a struggle. The last two weeks he's been up a lot at night gagging and coughing with his collapsed trachea--that means I've been up, too. As much as I hoped to do some kind of spring trip with him (Georgia? AZ or California?), I'm afraid that may not work for him. BUT! We'll see. He might rally with warmer weather. As my Christian friends say and their bible expresses, "For everything there is a season..."  (Ecclesiastes 3:1-8).