Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

Although I did enjoy my recent vacation, there were a few drawbacks. As a freelancer, I don't get paid vacations, so taking a week off hit my finances. Fortunately, with some careful spending, I'm recovering.

The other drawback was boarding my dog, Una, at the vet's for a week. I'd only ever left her there for a weekend before, and if I'd had another option, I would have used it. For more than a week before the vacation, I was dreading it. The Gryphon said to try not to project such sadness or Una might sense it.

I had a hard time dropping her off at the vet's the Saturday we went away. Although I'd started looking into other boarding possibilities, I hadn't started until it was too late.

I'd spoken to the pet store owner where I buy Una's food. She suggested a woman who does dog sitting in her home. While she has several dogs of her own, they're friendly, and she provides a home environment for boarded dogs.

So I e-mailed her, spoke to her about the possibility of leaving Una with her the next time we go away. She was very friendly, answered my questions, sent me some references. Then we set up a time for Una to meet her so we'd know if they'd be compatible when the opportunity arose.

The pet sitter and her husband were in the side yard with their dogs when we arrived. She first suggested we go inside the house with Una and let her explore. As she did, The Gryphon and I took a seat on the sofa and talked about the pet sitter's usual procedures. She showed us a photo album of the different dogs she has had at her home.

When Una had explored the house sufficiently, we decided to introduce her to the other dogs, in the side yard. Two were Shetland Sheepdogs and one was a Shetland Sheepdog mix. All were quite sweet.

Una befriended the male dog right away, and they ran around the yard together. But then one of the females got jealous and got in Una's face, barking at her. Una cowered down but began to show her teeth.

That's when the pet sitter stepped in and diffused the situation, making her dog leave Una alone.

As we sat in the yard, talking about our dogs, and while Una sampled grass and played occasionally with the male dog, I felt better about the prospect of leaving Una with them for extended vacations, should the need arise. Since it's only slightly more expensive than the vet's, I'm sure it will buy me peace of mind.

We're going to try this out this coming weekend when we make a long day trip. Hopefully, all will go well.

We had a lot more trouble making arrangements for last Saturday, when we were supposed to attend an Otakon meeting in Baltimore. We knew it would be a long day, since we would be electing next year's officers. So we tried to arrange with somebody to come by and let Una out at least once during the afternoon.

When we gathered with some of The Gryphon's friends recently for dinner, we floated the suggestion. We had an offer from one friend, whom I'll call The Beatlemaniac, since she's a real Beatles fan. She said she'd help if we could find no one else.

In the meantime, we made a good faith effort to find someone else. I tried calling a pet walking service but had no luck reaching anyone, though I tried for several days.

Then I asked a friend from college I'll call The March Hare. He wasn't able to help, because he was also going to the Otakon meeting. But he seemed pleased to be asked, having really liked Una when he met her. Maybe that's someone to consider for the future.

At this point, we asked anyone we thought would be in town, still with no luck. My college roommate was available but said she doesn't feel comfortable around dogs. While she liked Una, she'd never had to deal with her when I wasn't there and didn't think she'd know what how to handle a dog.

I told her that was fair enough, and we made plans to get lunch together this coming Sunday.

Nobody else was available at all.

We went back to The Beatlemaniac and asked on bended knee if she would come by and check on Una. She said she would, so we invited her over Thursday night to meet Una and pick up a spare key. That's when I discovered how many key makers are incompetent. We tried two different hardware stores before we got successful copies made at Home Depot.

We treated The Beatlemaniac to Italian takeout and she met Una, who seemed to like her. As we ate, we gave her tips on what to do when she got here and how to deal with Una's quirks (such as having her fetch a toy when she gets excited, to distract her). Unfortunately, The Beatlemaniac left behind her purse and also got sick from the rich food.

But she did come by on Saturday at about 2 p.m. We found this out when we called from the Du Claw Restaurant in Arundel Mills, in the Baltimore area. We wanted to gauge how late we could get home without putting Una through too much discomfort.

I suppose some will say that Una is spoiled, but I believe she deserves a little kindness, a little comfort. Plus, it makes me feel better about being away from her, softie that I am.

For those who might have wondered about the anniversary gift The Gryphon brought me last night, it was, as promised, a very silly gift. In fact, it was the very Monty Python toy set that I had expressed a desire for when we found a description of it online. He had ordered it for me that very day, as a surprise.

The toy, a cow catapult, will be great for parties. Or for scaring away very small British knights. It even comes with a Trojan Rabbit, which, the label warns, is not to be used as a condom.

After I finished my work for the evening, we ate the chocolate we'd bought on Sunday and watched Dangerous Liaisons, which strangely enough, we'd never watched together. This is odd when you consider that one of the first things that struck me about The Gryphon was that his eyes, and his voice, reminded me of John Malkovich, and we'd talked about the movie in our flirty e-mails last year which led to him asking me out.

All in all, a very pleasant evening. And when he went off to work this morning, The Gryphon, looking at me with a smile, and said, "Year two."

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

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