Abby Acquisitions

I had a chance to fly home for one night this last week, to get some sleep and fresh clothes, the upcoming schedule sort of in limbo.  Before my flight, I had a good breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage and an orange at the hotel,  but figured I'd best get a snack to take on the plane, as low blood sugar and long flights don't mix.  So I picked up some beef jerky.  Most airport beef jerky is pretty lousy (being made up of diced and smoked unclaimed luggage), but this stuff was quite good and after a  little nibble mid-flight, I tucked it into my soft-sided briefcase.

I have to say though, it was good to come home to a house with lights on, and someone waiting for me. Before I got Barkley I remember too well, the years of coming home to an empty house, something I'd just grown used to.  It was as if loneliness were a callous and complete condition of living which seems forever fixed, only to melt before a pair of brown eyes and a wagging tail, that capricious and faithful spirit that forever waits.

I had gotten spoiled before this last assignment though.  I've only had to take one overnight  trip since we got Abby, Partner watching her at home while I was gone.  But I DID bring her a new toy when I returned that time.

This time, there was more than one night away and no toy, just one tired dog Mom, even though Abby snooted my bag as if expecting something to come out of it.

No one was up late. Abby collecting her beloved stuffed toys and one by one carrying them to her bed in my office, while she then sleeps on the futon from which she can look down the hallway to where the bedroom is.

Early the next morning, not long after dawn, I wake to an unusual noise. I can sleep through trains all night long, but if there is a sound in the house that isn't normal, I'm awake in a nanosecond. The sound was odd, there in the dim stillness of the house, almost as if Abby was eating something. It wasn't Abby crunching on a piece of kibble left in her bowl.  It almost had a plastic sound. Then it stopped.  Partner got up to investigate.  I heard a laugh and was told to come look.

She'd snagged the puffy bag of beef jerky out of my briefcase.  She didn't try and gnaw it open, thinking perhaps it was just a really tasty smelling toy.

I was just keeping your bed warm until you came back.  

Thanks for the new toy Mom.  It didn't squeak at all but it smells like cow!

I thought, as I put water on to boil for tea, that my time at home may sometimes be short, but it is never boring.