Hi Chuck Billy! Tomorrow will mark 4 month since you left, so I thought I’d give you an update. Something really strange happened here this week! Remember our friend, the repairman who visits every couple years to do maintenance on the water filter? Yeah, that nice guy, who always made sure we had the best tasting water. Well he came this week. But when his truck pulled into the driveway, rather than whisk me into my crate, like the old routine, Mom greeted him at the door with me by her side. She forgot to crate me!
Now I know what you’re thinking, “Did you bark at him?” Actually, I totally forgot! I was distracted, and not only because I wasn’t in my crate. As we walked down the stairs, Mom noticed a tick on my head. Don’t worry, the tick wasn’t biting me! I still remember your stranger danger tick lecture. Anyways, while Mom greeted him at the door, the repairman not the tick, she was awkwardly squeezing the tick between two fingers, before unceremoniously flushing him away, the tick not the repairman. Glad he didn’t want to shake Mom’s hand! But I was sitting there ready to offer him my paw, should Mom need the assist. Hence why I forgot to bark.
As our friend headed down to the basement, Dad sat at the kitchen table working on his computer. I thought it was weird that Dad also forgot to put me in my crate. That was always the routine before. I’d go in my crate. You go in yours. You’d bark. And I’d smile and wag my tail. Like good cop / bad cop. Instead, I settled in under the kitchen table, and listened to the work being done in the basement. To be honest, I never noticed all the noises the repairman made until this year. I guess all your barking drowned out the water noises. Get it! Drowned Out! Oh I bet you miss my puns!
Anyways, I must have drifted off to sleep, because next thing I knew our friend emerged from the basement, and gave Dad an update on the maintenance. That’s when I got up and greeted him, not in the usual exuberant way, but instead I quietly slipped in next to his side. Bet you didn’t know I could do stealth mode! Neither did I, actually. I was so quiet that it was a moment before he realized he was petting me, while they talked. It was when I leaned into him to get a better sniff of his pants that he noticed me, and said “he’s a cuddler, isn’t he!”
The conversation then changed to him saying his parents have Golden Retrievers. He also glanced over to your empty crate, and gave me an extra scratch behind the ear, before inquiring about you. Our friend sure looked sad when Dad told him the news, and remarked, “He always barked so fierce when I was here! If someone didn’t know he was a Golden, they’d be afraid to come inside.” You would have loved that compliment! And it was true too! You always sounded fierce when anyone came to do work on the house.
After he left, I curled up in your crate for old times sake. As you can see I decorated it for you. Sorry I forgot to bark, but it was really nice to hear your bark was remembered.
