The time finally arrived, Senior was gone for several days and when he got back everyone was quite excited as he had ‘bought’ a house! I didn’t understand ‘bought’ so I kind of figured it was the same as ‘got’. So what was the big deal, we always had had a house.

  Move again we did, the usual routine, packing, dog crate, cat crate and everything hauled to the wharf. Again it was a short trip but when we were unloaded we were immediately reloaded into a big truck. That was the worst trip. It was dark the whole way, the truck was noisy and there were awful smelly fumes. The good part was that it only lasted a few hours.

  We arrived at our new home, a place called Wilson Creek. I liked it from the start! The house wasn’t very big but it was in a big yard, there was a forest at the back and just beyond that was a beach and the ocean. We had neighbors on both sides of us and after I introduced myself I found I was welcomed every time I visited. Even Paddy and Patches liked it.

  It didn’t take too long to settle in and for some reason I was now allowed to sleep inside every night. Pretty good deal. John was there a lot at first then he started leaving for short periods. But I was quite busy exploring my new territory and I guess I realized that he had things to do and he did keep coming back, so it was ok.

  I seemed to be content to go on short walks now, didn’t really care about heading out on my own to chase whatever was out there. I got more enjoyment out of just being with someone in the family. Oh it’s true I would liked to have seen more of John but I guess I had to accept that he was changing too and I had to take things as they came, I truly was content.

  Now don’t get me wrong, when he was around we still had fun. We still wrestled and rolled about. We would go on short hunting expeditions, sometimes when he was reading I would just lie sort of half on his lap, actually I really liked those moments.

 

CHAPTER 11

I

 guess it must have been about a year after we arrived that John went away for several months. When he left Mom and Senior were quite sad, I was a bit confused as he had left before but as the days stretched into weeks then into months I came to miss him as well.  I often would sit at the front door and watch both ways down the highway always thinking that sooner or later he would be there.

  One day, while sleeping at the front, I was awakened by a big bus stopping at our gate. As I sat up and stretched a figure came around the back of that bus. My eyes weren’t as good as they had once been but in a flash I knew it was he. I launched myself at the gate and erupted into the granddaddy of all welcoming dances. Oh what a good moment that was. For several minutes I had him all to myself, then Mom came running out, I’ll swear she was dancing too. Almost at the same time Senior appeared from the garden at the back and all four of us ended up in a big tangle.

  After a while we all settled down but I stayed either at his feet if he was standing up or on his lap if he was sitting down