“May I stop POSING now?”

What a month. Between my Mom being ill, the bone-cold weather we’ve been having, my real job consuming 12 hours of my day and being on-call for two weeks for jury duty (in Trenton of all places), this month just disappeared. The only bright spot was (as it always is), Olive. While I was out of town visiting my Mom, Olive got to stay at Four Paws Playground, the Hotel W for dogs. Now that she’s stayed there a few times for a week or more, I find the idea of her well-being doesn’t intrude upon my thoughts constantly when I’m away. I trust that Olive is well taken care of there. But then I feel guilty that I’m not thinking of her often enough. So, I look forward to when I return home and pick her up. My plane lands, I bolt home like a Superhero, run out the door and start the drive to Four Paws. It is the best drive ever. I’m going to bring my little nut home. She of course, is oblivious that her vacation is about to come to a close. She’s always a bit non-chalant in the car on the way back home. I can’t figure out if this is because she’s shocked that I came back or shocked that she’s leaving all her canine friends and is about to miss the hotly anticipated scavenger hunt that was planned for that evening. Once she’s home, she invariably heads for her water bowl, takes a drink then starts racing through the house like a spooked antelope. She’s back. One of the things I especially love about Olive is that her tail wags at 180 mph all the time. I view this as a barometer of her overall happiness. (And mine.) During this month, we did get to the local park every few days. I did this for Olive, not for me. Standing on top of a mountain being the only object to buffet 25 mph winds where it’s 15 degrees, was not my idea of fun. However, to Olive it was great fun. Especially since she was wearing her new winter coat. Although she’s not too crazy about the jockstrap-like straps that criss-cross her behind when you put her legs through them. For the first few minutes, she walked like she had a load in her diaper. Then she kept swiveling her head ahead to see just what was back there. Finally, she was able to ignore it as she ran around the park chasing her friends. I chuckled to myself when I saw her from behind and noticed one of the straps sort of riding up very close to where it shouldn’t be. Olive trots over and stands next to me quietly. That’s my cue to take her home. Home sweet home.