Jake's Beginnings: Fourth Installment

(Before I get started on today's Installment, I want you to know I promised Fergi I give her "Aire-time" soon. I admit I've been hogging the space the past couple of days. I told her to be considering what she wanted to write about for tomorrow. When she's not napping, I think she's composing.) 

So, I left off with an account of my first afternoon in my new home.  I was finding some good places to explore. Some comfy places to lie.  And a whole new world, inside and out. On these things my people called "walks," I certainly wasn’t used to being on a leash, with a halter. But that soon changed. I quickly learned that was the way that I’d walk the neighborhood. Mom said there were way too many rabbits and even bigger four-legged animals to let me loose. She and I both knew my legs may have been weak, but I could still run fast! The afternoon of that first day home (I LOVE the sound of that word!), we took off on one of several walks around the neighborhood. Mom and Nina kept saying, "Be a good dog. Be a big boy. Go potty." I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about, but they sure got excited and happy when I squatted (yep, squatted ... it's hard to lift a leg in a crate) and peed. There must’ve been a connection, cuz they’d say "Good boy! Good dog!" after I left a wet spot.

Anyhow, the leash and the walks. I did pretty well with the leash. The one problem was I pulled - hard - to go into EVERY driveway and up to EVERY front door. Mom wasn’t sure if I didn’t know which house was mine, or if I was looking for someone else’s home. PJ’s home, maybe? I didn’t tell her. And I don’t think she is sure even today.

On those walks, I also got to see some TRUCKS and 4-WHEEL DRIVES parked in driveways and a couple parked on the street. They made me happy. Really happy! My tail wagged. I pulled to go over to them and check them out. I wasn’t interested in the tires. (I’m told boy dogs have a reputation to like them.) I was smelling the whole length of the vehicle. What was I doing, and why? That’s another one of my secrets. (Later they think they figured it out.... PJ had a truck. And I loved to take rides in it when I was with her. I was looking for her truck.)

I met lots of neighborhood dogs on those first walks. They said that dogs used to intimidate me. Maybe they still did. I wasn't sure what intimidation looked like. But I did want to go close to them. I’d hold very very still. VERY VERY STILL! I’d wait to see what they were going to do. Most of them just smelled me, and I let them. Some of them were sort of in-my-face (one puppy bit at my ears) but I still stayed very very still. None of them barked. Everyone seemed happy. It seemed like there were going to be lots of new friends.

Night time came and I was wearing down.  So were my people.  Nina sat and held me close, and we spent some nice quiet time together. It felt really really good, being stroked and petted and simply loved.  I could have stayed in her arms for hours, but after a little while, Mom and Nina took me outside again, on the leash, and did the whole "Be a good boy, Good dog." routine. They seemed happy and excited. Me? I was tired. Or more like exhausted. I had no problem settling down for the night, right between them in the big bed I'd found earlier. (Nina wanted to sleep with me too, that first night.  We all cuddled up together.) I fell sound asleep. I didn’t budge all night. I don’t think I even rolled over. This is what I’d been waiting for for the past almost three years. Comfort and Love with a Family!

Several hours later, it was still dark, but I’d been sleeping for a long time. Nobody knew it, but I sat up, straight and tall, in bed. There was a great big window and I could see straight out it. I peered. It was pitch black outside, except for a couple of lights on a building across the way. Pretty soon Mom woke up and opened her eyes. She saw me looking excitedly out the window, holding still, but anticipating something. She watched me for a minute or so, wondering what I heard or thought I saw. Pretty soon a big fire truck silently (or so Mom thought) pulled into the fire house across the way, backing up to return to the bay. Wow! Excitement! A FIRE TRUCK! Remember, I’m a dog who likes TRUCKS!!! And there was one right out my window (well, a few hundred yards away)! There I was, standing up (in the pitch dark) and my tail was wagging! I was a happy dog. A new home and a fire truck to watch. This life was looking really promising. Nina sort of woke up and mumbled, "It’s a boy thing. Go back to sleep, Jake." And we did. We all went back to sleep. Together.

The next morning, my second day with my new family, we piled into the car again and went shopping. Great fun that was! I got to go into two different pet stores. Now remember, you’re reading about a guy who lived his first two years in a puppy mill. I thought I’d hit the absolute jackpot in these places. Bones at nose level. Aisles and aisles (spelling that word was a stretch to my new doggie vocabulary) of toys. I came home with a couple of new dog beds.  And it didn't take me long at all to figure out they were mine! (They told me I couldn’t get on the piano bench anymore. That’s where I wanted to be when my new humans were playing the piano ... it’s okay, though, because I really like my beds. I have a king-sized one for the room where I stay when they leave me, and a smaller one that goes from room to room. I like to sleep in them, and I also really like to store my toys in them.)

Speaking of toys... PJ had been teaching me how to play with them when I lived at her house and I was happy to do just that in this new home of mine. I found toys all over the house and I quickly got familiar with all of them. Quietly, I had a grand time tossing them around, mouthing them and pawing at them. It made my people happy to watch me. They smiled and encouraged me and everyone felt good. Especially me.  Silently I played.  

   

Soon, however, the silence came to an end. I was so happy and felt so confident, I wanted to let the world know.  I found my voice, and I happily used it. I barked and I barked and I barked. They were happy barks. They were excited barks. They were barks of joy and celebration. There was no mistaking it.  I was home. I was with my new forever family. I was theirs. And they were mine! And I wanted everyone to know I understood that!

 

(Even my friend, Justin, thousands of miles away, could hear me! I was happy and not afraid to show it. There was no turning back now. Life was good! Life IS good! It's OUR life! TOGETHER!)