Welcome Home, Boy (pt.II)

A couple years ago, we found out we were moving to a new state. For financial and convenient reasons, we ended up having to sacrifice the outside space of our new home. We wondered how Kodiak would fare in his small backyard and it was obvious very quickly that this was not going to work. Barking at 5:30 am is not cool with new neighbors and neither is the fact that we had the ONLY big (AKA: real) dog anywhere around. What to do? Well, Greg's parents, who live in our vicinity, offered to take him for us. They had the open spaces we had left behind and it just made sense. The buzz of all things new kept us distracted from missing him, and we did visit often.

But....over the last several months we have noticed his pace slow a bit. Instead of having an incessant need to fetch a ball, he seemed more content to just lay at our feet. And though we fixed as posh a dog pad as we possibly could for him, the weather was getting noticeably tougher for him to handle.

Then one night, after watching 'Marley & Me', it occurred to us that, after all these years, Kodiak no longer wanted to be away from Joshua. He no longer needed acres to run and jump in. At almost 11 years old, he was ready to be our inside dog again -- he needed to come home! If a rotten dog like Marley was as treasured as he was then our faithful Kodiak certainly deserved all we could give him!

Welcome home, boy.

 

Now that he's back with us, we are enjoying what a great decision this was. And I can't tell you how happy Kodiak's "little brother" has been about all this! They love to go throw the ball around the yard - perfect solution for someone who has an uncontrollable need to throw and someone else with like need to catch....

 

And doesn't this say it all? What's a tent in the living room when you have a dog you can sleep next to? I'm not sure who's more content.

 

The only down-side is now someone ELSE is missing him!:( He made a really good grand-dog....

 

We are thankful for all the years of our life that we have had Kodiak. He has been an integral part of the twists and turns, the tears and the joys, that have ended up being our story. A story that, as a dog, you just take for granted. But I guess, sometimes, I do too.....until I start telling it.