HOCKEY-HOCKEY...BUT....

I like this time of year; so much to smell. The little creatures out there are scurrying around trying to hide from the cold, so they’re not really paying attention and it’s much easier to get closer and boy! Their faces when they realize I’m right behind them! I give a bark or two to show I mean business, that I can catch them if I tried. I don’t, because my mistress would be so upset with me! She laughs when I tree them, and doesn’t mind if I stand there barking up at them, but I remember how she scolded Smooch when he caught a young chipmunk, and there’s no way I want that! Funny how the cat can come back with mice and leave them right beside her bed, and HE gets petted and praised. Then that smartass just struts his stuff, showing off. I get him back by eating his food when the mistress isn’t watching, ha-ha!

Another reason I like this time is because my Mistress perks right up. Most days I can sense that she is very tired when she gets home from the place called work. But the master is back now, and we have a new routine. The black stick makes a bell sound, the master picks it up and talks to it, then about 30 minutes later he calls ‘Come on, Grump’ and outside we go and I’m all excited because I know the Mistress will be here soon, and sure enough, there she comes in her truck, around the corner and up the lane. I run down to show her how happy I am to see her, and she seems to understand that I can’t make it all the way down and back up anymore, so we meet halfway. She opens her window and talks to me and calls me her baby and she continues as we come slowly together up the hill, then she opens the truck door and before she even steps out I go to her and get hugs and kisses and my tail wags so hard it slaps, slaps, slaps against the door, against the master’s legs who is laughing behind me, and even against my Mistress as we turn and wiggle and just LOVE!

So not too long ago, after the hugging, and the words ‘food now, Grump?’ we’re coming up the stairs and I hear her say ‘Hockey-hockey-hockey, Grump!!!’ and I knew we were in for good nights. The dancing will begin, with longer neck scratching scenes and cuddling up on the couch beside the fire whenever she says ‘hockey-hockey-hockey!’ She hadn’t said it for a long time; it only starts when the leaves begin to fall.

And here we are; she’s on the couch looking at the moving box in the corner and I come to one side of her and put my head on her knee for the neck scratch, and suddenly she gets very quiet and I can feel waves of sadness from her. I look up and her eyes are leaking and this isn’t normal and I lick her face, wondering why hockey-hockey-hockey doesn’t make her happy anymore. Then she speaks to me, but the only word I understand is ‘Smooch’. And I remember.

From habit I had come up to her on my side, and he used to come from the other side, and her two hands would be busy scratching and rubbing both our heads. This is the first hockey-hockey-hockey since he disappeared. Mind you, I don’t mind not having to share, but I hate it when she’s sad, so when she stops scratching and bends over to pick something off the table I go around the back of the couch and come up to her on Smooch’s side, hoping it will make the sad go away (and the extra scratching wouldn’t hurt either) and it works! She stares at me for a second, then I see she understands and there is ‘you beautiful doggie’ and she throws her arms around me and hugs real tight, and even if her eyes are still leaking it is a good kind of feeling, and then more hugs and kisses and plenty of scratching to boot! Hockey-hockey-hockey is back where it belongs!
Except – well, my breathing isn’t so good, partly because of the medication she said, so we don’t dance right now. She claps her hands and makes noises and I bounce my head up and down and we get by just fine. A bonus is that it makes the cat nervous, so he stays in the bedroom instead of crawling up on her knee as he is prone to do if she is sitting anywhere else. Ha, Feline! Hockey-hockey-hockey is a dog thing!! And my human’s thing... because it sure does make her SMILE!!

Luv from the Bush in Quebec