The loss of a good friend

Labor Day has come and gone. Children and grandchildren passed through Fire Lane 17 this summer.

We had a wonderful time.

Early Tuesday morning there was a huge reversal. The Fire Lane 17 house Beagle known as Nathan passed away.

He had had a few sessions of unusual breathing patterns, which were quite scary, over the last three weeks.

He usually snapped out of it and returned to normal.

Monday he had a bad day and could not seem to breathe normally.

About 2 a.m. he was moving around and seemed uncomfortable, but settled down in a few minutes. We did not hear any panting again.

About 6 a.m. I got up to see how he was doing and found that he had died and was already slightly stiff.

I know that all my readers know what a large part of my life Nathan had hitched himself to.

He slept in our room, his blue chair, and on my lap in my recliner.

He traveled most everywhere in my Tahoe and had a couple of roosts in my office.

I keep telling myself that he was actually just a super friendly dog and certainly not the first that was very close to me.

I had recovered from those sadnesses before and probably will again. I have been helped in those endeavors by the arrival of the next dog that wormed his way into my life.

The door was always open a crack and some fabulous characters slipped in. I am older now and maybe won’t have the activity level to be fair to a new visitor.

My housemate usually says “no more dogs” because the sorrow of ten “passings” is about all she can stand.

I had hoped that Nathan would be with me for eight years instead of two.

At that age I would probably have felt that was enough.

I feel especially privileged to have had two great years of his life shared with me and my grandchildren. He seemed to appreciate all the people I chatted with when we wandered around the village. I have never actually gone out and looked for a dog.

They seem to find me and sense that I am soft on canines and they round me up like a hustler on a race track.

Wednesday morning, I picked up my friend, Carl, at the airport on his return from the Philippines.

He seemed to have a lot of zip and wanted to get things caught up that backslid during his three month absence.

He commented that it was a lot hotter here than it was in South East Asia.

He helped me get my small motorboat on its trailer and parked where it spends the winter.

We will leave it ready to go and we can get back in the lake for a day trip from where it is parked.

That will probably not happen as the Samuel Clyde, my big boat, is sitting at the dock.

We will certainly do a fall color trip in late September or early October.

I hope this gloomy feeling will disappear in the next month or so.

We hope all is well with all of you as our fall season is commencing. We really do need some rain for nature to ready itself for winter.