Out of town

A week ago I was blissfully walking around downtown Charleston, SC with my mother, on our way to a patisserie in the rain.  I was visiting the Southern half of my family for five days, and my flight back had been delayed a few hours. An excuse for croissants!

Every time I travel without the dogs, I always imagine what it would be like to have them along, even live in a place with them. The trip before SC, a year ago, was Brooklyn, and Wren would not like the noisy streets, George would bark rudely at the other dogs, and Chibi would do just fine, blinking at everyone.

In Charleston, they all would like it there. Less sweater wearing time, though I did bring home a new one for Tiny Dog: a cream turtleneck with a squirrel holding a nut. (This sweater made her briefly do a half-hearted handstand as she tried to get its unaccustomed longer length off her hips.) No or rare snow to ice their small toes. Leash walks at the plantation gardens (but some, watch for gators). I don’t know how they’d feel about the beach. Wren hates cacophony, but loves to run. The beach might just be too hot most of the time, for their small selves. Anyways, there are rules now, unlike when I lived there in the early 90’s: strict on-leash beach hours, usually before 7 am.

How terrible, forced sweater wearing.

 

I missed the dogs, as I always do, when I am out of town. So I sat each morning on my mother’s bench, and looked out her fourth story condo window down at the park and lake below.  There was a poop bag dispenser on that corner, so I got to see the parade of pups each morning: mostly pedigrees, but always cute, and of course, do not forget about the King Charles spaniels—sweet, soft, doe-eyed, and more likely than not, heart-murmuring away.

But most of the time, the best part of going away is coming home. Wren did the most exuberant hello I have ever seen her perform, pushing Tiny Dog out of the way. And George might have peed on the floor. I came home after dark, and it was 30 degrees colder at least than when I left SC.  I sighed at winter. But then, those tails and tongues and dancing feet! Well, how could you not be glad?