Rhymes with Safari

…doesn’t mean you shouldn’t go back and check.

Isis has gotten so good about going into her crate after our morning play sessions. Might have something to do with the peanut butter ears I stash in her Hide-a-Squirrel and Mystery of the Pyramids toys.

I wasn’t even on the freeway yet when I realized that I didn’t remember closing her crate door. That happened once before, but she wandered into the bathroom before I left.

I decided it was probably that “Did I lock my door” thing, when you do something so unconsciously you don’t remember doing it. And so what if I did leave it open? Rob’s mom would be by in a couple of hours and it would be interesting to see what Isis would do with all that freedom.

Sure enough, I got a call from Rob’s dad saying that I needed to call the house right away, the crate door was left open and “Isis was a bad girl.”

Oh nooooo, I thought, I am so stupid. She probably crapped all over the place. Or chewed through the computer and TV cords…

Actually, she had gotten a hold of a bag of shin guards, which had just been washed, but were still pretty stinky. She scattered them around the house, but did no damage to anything. I can just picture her, with a shin guard in her mouth, shaking the hell out of it, dropping it, and going for another. I’m told she also moved all of the toys out of her crate and into the computer room.

The kicker, though, is that she didn’t greet Rob’s mom at the door, but waited patiently in her crate until Grandma came in the kitchen.

Man, I bet Isis had the greatest morning.

I get a funny sort of depressed, nostalgic feeling watching the YouTube my brother made of Barney’s Last Day. It’s not that I feel sad for Barney…he had a great, long life in which he was adored. I feel sad for those of us that have to feel the emptiness of the furry little void he leaves behind, but that’s not entirely it either.

It’s like this picture, here.

That’s how I think of my mom’s house, on a sunny day, sitting on the blue-and-white striped chair with Barney at my feet. Emerald’s in the picture too, but he was only stationed there while I was in Prague.

Barney’s Last Day looked like that. It was sunny and he had a lovely time, sitting on his rugs, having a bite to eat, wiping his ear on the couch, ambling out to the edge of the driveway…

What makes me sad is the passage of time and the knowledge that it won’t ever be like that again. Things come to an end and life goes on.

I have a new house (occasionally sunny) and a new dog and a new iguana. Perhaps one day I can read with Isis on the floor while Stew lounges on the back of the couch. And maybe it will be just as cozy.

But it won’t be the same.