I was back in Chicago for one night and I was just fine. My new-found "dog obsession" wasn't overwhelming, although I had a few qualms along the lines of "how would they manage without me ..."David, my fiance, has proclaimed me "obsessed." The symptoms?
I bookmarked the rescue site, American Black and Tan Coonhound Rescue on my pc.
I visit it regularly. Very regularly. Okay, about four times a day. I am completely fascinated by the new dogs that appear in the "Available" tab, and those that have found salvation in the "Rescued" tab. I pore over the new stories in "Happy Endings." I have read every rescue testimonial there, starting at the bottom and reading new ones almost as they are posted. Some of them I've read more than once. Booker's "Happy Ending" is on there, too, although I think it's more aptly called a "Happy Do-over."
I inadvertantly direct conversation with David and Samantha to little "dog updates." I tell stories about the dog park. I speculate on his past and hypothesize on the deep dog-psyche reasons for his behaviors. I'm trying to pay attention to not overdoing it. It's like having a new baby and letting your whole world become baby-driven. Not a good thing.
I troll the Web for bits of information on Treeing Walkers. Google: "treeing walker" "treeing walker coonhound" "walker hound" ... you get the picture. I've found some very interesting sites. Lots of people who own Walkers live in a different reality than we do. Of course, that's exactly why we got our own treeing walker coonhound. The whole retirement thing.
And, I have changed my AIM avatar to a hounddog.
Actually, I did that to tease David a bit.
When my plane was landing yesterday, the early evening sun on little Fort Lauderdale was beautiful. The New River sparkled and the white caps on the ocean rolled. Our 4-block deep downtown, with it's handful of office buildings and glimmering condominiums, and a couple miles east, the line of ocean front properties, looked like home. I missed David, and wanted to hear about the Starting Line concert my daughter went to the night before.
And, I smiled at the thought of my coonhound waiting for me to walk in the door. But not obsessively.
1 comment:
I just howled at your coonhound obsession. My husband and I have a walker whom we liberated from a very bad situation. We had every intention of finding him a wonderful new home or getting him to a local rescue - however rescues were full, and the new home gave him back to us after 5 weeks. Knowing that the options were not good ones if we tried to finda another home, we took him on as our project. It has been a year and he has blossomed, and we are completely smitten and dog obsessed like we have never been before with our other dogs. I stumbled upon the AB&T rescue site, and reading gave me the encouragement to keep working when I was completely unsure. I now visit the site with regular interest (4-6 times a day) reading every story and truly obsessing about the time when we will be able to take on another coonie. We too, have had to deal with food and territory agression issues as well as high anxiety. Your blog make me smile - the familiarity uncanny at times.
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