Shadow!
Nubi & Noodle
My sister Amy and her husband Jim have three dogs – Shadow, Noodle, and Nubi. Shadow is about 12 years old, a cute little black Pomeranian (IS he a pomeranian? I know it starts with a “P.”). he’s very friendly and loveable and good. Noodle and Nubi are a beagle and an Italian greyhound, both young and energetic and not so bright. Good-natured, but they’d chew the house down if left to their own devices. i previously wrote about them destroying anything and everything in their paths.
Before Noodle and Nubi, there was Shadow and Beleu, a black lab (a lab? are you sure? i think so), who was named after the bear in Jungle Book. Beleu passed away a few years ago, and then it was just Shadow, who was lonely without Beleu. Hence the arrival of Noodle and Nubi. But the two younger dogs are slightly insane, as i’ve mentioned, and they spend lots of time trying (very good-naturedly, of course) trying to kill each other. Shadow steers clear, spending his time being petted and loved and spoiled by amy and jim.
When i’ve dog-sitted (dog-sat?) for them, i’ve managed to attend to keeping the animals accounted for (there are also a few cats). my strategy was to ply all animals with many treats.
anyway, on sunday jim called. shadow was MISSING. he’d dug a hole under the fence and disappeared. he’d been gone two hours. Everybody started combing the neighborhoods, looking for him. No Shadow. things looked bleak. i’d spent the day making a bunch of mexican food; the family was going to assemble at mom-n-dad’s, and we were going to eat, then play a new game. The plans weren’t called off, but amy and jim didn’t come over, so there was a definite pall over the party.
Monday, amy called. she’d seen an animal control truck near her house, and she followed it. it was roaring around town, and sped into the sherwood subdivision. amy was finally able to flag it down, and asked if they’d picked up Shadow. Nope, but they had a report of a little black dog in the neighborhood, running loose. amy knew, IT MUST BE SHADOW! she called me, she called dad, and soon were were out in our cars, creeping around Sherwood, yelling SHADOW! SHADOW! at the top of our lungs. every once in a while i’d see amy up ahead of me, turning a corner.
i couldn’t find shadow. i stopped a woman out walking a dog, and she hadn’t seen him, but she wanted a card so she could call me if she did. as i dug around in my purse, my phone rang. THEY FOUND SHADOW! i thanked the woman.
But Shadow wasn’t in sherwood after all. it would have been quite a hike if he’d been there, and he’d have had to cross too many busy streets. jim had called the Animal Protective League, who called him back an hour later – a woman living right down the block had found him, probably very soon after he’d made his escape.
he was running around in a church parking lot (like me, he gets confused at church), and she brought him home and put him on a leash in the back yard, hoping somebody would claim him. meanwhile, the family was combing outlying areas.
shadow BROKE FREE from the yard, because he is a sweet but very, very stubborn little fellow, and the woman had to chase him down the block to retrieve him. she must have taken him inside at that point. she had a dog of her own, and a few cats, and all the animals got along fine.
shadow slept in her bed with her.
and on monday morning, he was returned safe and sound. i pulled into amy and jim’s house just as they’d picked him up, and they all scampered down the street towards home. it was a mighty fine start to the week.
i guess the lesson is that that which you seek is probably in your own back yard. or at least in a neighbor’s back yard.
here’s my Zen quote for the day: “There is never anything but the present, and if one cannot live there, one cannot live anywhere.” i can’t be a Buddhist monk after all, because i’d have to shave my head and they don’t allow women anyway and i’d have to go to tibet or somewhere. but that’s not going to stop me from becoming PLENTY enlightened, let me tell you.
ok then.
grace becoming more enlightened by the minute.