The Incredible Journey

There have been times, this last year, when I have thought of basically eliminating the Internet from my life.  Because it's been the source of hurt, and gossip, and untruths, and I've had to force myself at points to ignore things that are almost impossible to ignore.  Today, I changed my mind and decided that sometimes facebook DOES use it's power for good, not evil, and I won't ever delete my account, come what may.

Mom and Dad were dog sitting last night and they went for a ride up to my sister's house, taking our Captain Burdock with them.  He was outside playing with Myra and Jim's dog, Tilly, but when it came time to leave he couldn't be found.  They searched for him to no avail and finally had to head home, dogless.  He's never run away before, but then, he's never really been away from us before either.

Early this morning, when he still hadn't turned up, I called the Town Clerk, dog catcher, vet's office and I posted his picture on facebook and asked folks to share.  Immediately, Captain's photo was spread far and wide.

When the kids and I went hunting for him, most of the people I spoke to had already heard he was missing...perfect strangers were out looking alongside of people I went to high school with.  I was astounded when some random lady in a gas station was already on the lookout.  We found lots of clues, he'd been spotted down on RT 14, miles away, and headed toward Bethel.  He'd been seen at Lucky's Trailers, almost caught outside Eaton's Sugarhouse, was running down Russ Hill.  We asked everywhere, called everywhere, drove up and down every road in the area, calling.  It's not like Captain to just head out on his own, but when he's looking for his boys, there's no stopping him, he's jumped through high windows lately, knocking the screen out, just to get to them.

We got more and more worried as the day passed and Eli was a mess.  This was HIS dog.  The dog that sleeps with him every night and never leaves his side all day long.  Now Captain isn't the smartest dog on the planet.  When Jen is putting Ruby through her paces of sit, lie down, stay, fetch, roll over, speak, jump, etc, etc, Captain just yawns.  People would say "Oh, he'll find his way back to Myra's" but I certainly had my doubts.  Captain can't find his way out of a sheet when the kids throw one over his head.  For real.  No, he's not the keenest dog around, but there's one thing he's got going on above almost any dog I've ever seen.  Loyalty and doggielove.  He loves those kids so hard it's not even funny.  He is heartbroken when he can't be with his boys.  He literally puts his paws around them when they sleep and when Eli has been having one of his bad days, Captain is the one who comes running to press against him.  He hugs us all, like a person, and snuggles his head up on your shoulder.  He will never understand that he's just slightly too big to be a lap dog.  He's been depressed that the kids have been playing a lot lately in my Dad's sailboat, up on it's trailer and he can't get up, so he just lays down underneath waiting for them to come down.  Captain ranks number one in the love department.  He'd win any dog show if that was one of the categories.

So, needless to say, Eli, was a mess, especially after we'd shouted ourselves hoarse, driving 10 miles an hour all over Royalton and Bethel.

Coming home for lunch, I was disheartened to find no messages on the answering machine, though heartened to see, online, that word about Captain had spread even more.  But still no Captain.  Ira and Avry started to eat, but Eli couldn't.  He went out to the sailboat and cried.  Avry and Ira eventually went out too, and then the phone rang.

Back in Tunbridge, nearly 14 miles from where he was last seen, a friend of ours had noticed the facebook post about Captain and had just spotted a dog fitting his description running near her farm.  Getting pretty close to us, but on the wrong back road.  She caught him, called us, we rushed over and there he was!  With sore little paws, it was our Captain Burdock!

Home, after lots of food and water, Eli curled up with him on the sofa and let loose.  His first happy cry ever, I think.  It hasn't been a happy cry kinda year.  I bawled pretty hard when we saw it was actually our dog, safe and sound.  Now the kids want to hold and pet him nonstop, but poor Captain just wants to sleep.  How on earth could a small, (rather dumb) dog make it 14 miles in a couple of hours?  And from an unfamiliar place?  I'm so relieved.  Sunday is the kid's birthday and what a miserable one it would have been without their best friend.  I wish he could talk.  What was he thinking?  Where did he spend the night?  How did those swollen feet find their way nearly home again?

I owe facebook some credit for making sure little dogs and little boys don't lose each other.  And all the good people around here who understand that dogs are pretty special things.   I am grateful that way down in Bethel, some woman I'd never seen before asked me if I was "Captain's Mom" and had he been found yet?  Everyone in the surrounding communities was watching for him, it's such a wonderful place we live in, and Captain's Mom is very thankful for that.

Polar Caves

 We've gone on quite a few fun, little outings this summer, but this weekend's trip to The Polar Caves in Rumney NH was, by far, the most exciting.  Looking online, we were originally thinking of going to Ruggle's Mine, but it was SO expensive.  The Polar Caves were not nearly as pricey, and now that we've been, I would have paid twice the admission they charged because it was THAT cool.  My pictures don't do it justice.  One of the most beautiful places ever.  Even without the caves, the park itself is incredible.  I'd go again in a heartbeat.  I don't remember how many caves there were, maybe eight?  Some were very cold and deep, some had daylight shining in through crevices.  The stairs were mostly these amazing, wooden creations that were fit around the rocks perfectly.

  Along one of the boardwalks in the park, next to a jumble of car-sized granite chunks, with chilly air pouring out, we came across the general manager who was "building a new cave" as he put it.  He finds a cave (there are hundreds of them in this hillside, created by a glacier) makes sure there is an entrance, an exit,  and a bypass around.  He tests the cave for safety, then he begins making the stairs and walkways through it.  He's worked there his whole life and has built the only new caves in the park since 1920, three of them.  It can take many years, he said, to complete one.  He seemed very proud when Eli said he loved King Tut's Tomb, as it was the last one he'd worked on.  Fascinating to peer into the opening and see the new steps, each one hand-shaped to hug the stones, disappearing down into the earth.  The man had a rather sizable mid-section, so if he fits through his caves, others would too, he reasoned!  (Although I highly doubt this gentleman went through one feature we found called: the "Lemon Squeezer", the kids made it just fine, I was too chicken, and Jen had a quick moment of panic before she got out of the tight, drag-yourself-along-on-your-belly tunnel.) The whole place was just a wonderful experience.  A petting zoo of exotic, rainbow colored pheasants, and fallow deer with velvety horns and silky, spotted fur.  A rock garden maze with amazing granite boulders almost smothered in lush ferns and moss.  A pond with a covered bridge, paths and steps, steps, steps!  Hand-carved signs depicting, in wooden relief, all the trees and plants and animals along the way.  A sugarhouse museum.  A breathtaking view from the mountain on top of all the caves. (87 steps up!)  Anyway, it ranks number one on our list of favorite trips this summer.  If you've never been, we highly recommend you check out this New England attraction.  Completely clean and beautiful and (mostly) not claustrophobic (every cave has a bypass so you can pick and choose if you don't want to go underground), adventure enough for the most daring, and safe enough for the biggest chicken, has a long and interesting history, is highly educational (but not even close to boring!) won't break the bank and worth every penny.

Sweet Dreams

Most nights in the last month or so, on one of my many checks, I stand on the end of my kid's bed and take a snapshot.  Often they are out of focus because I'm laughing.  Often the dog wakes and peers up at me, squinting, bleary-eyed at the flash.

  At first, it was to catch the comical way they sprawl, one leg over the other, arms askew.  Different every night.  They seem perfectly comfortable in the most bizarre contortions.

Every time I'd slip in around midnight, knowing I needed to pull the covers up over them, I'd chuckle and go back to get my camera.   I pondered making a little flip book.  Just for fun.  Because it would be hysterical to thumb through.  All those positions.

  But then, as I looked at them and alternately thought how big they looked or how small they looked, (It was both, see) I started to understand that someday I wouldn't be able to peek in to their cluttered room and smile to myself about the way they fell asleep, arms around the dog, spread eagle, curled up tight in a nest of sheets, or holding hands.

 There will come a time, in the not-so-far-away future, that they won't need me to feel their foreheads or tuck them back in, or un-wedge a giant, stuffed seal from under their legs.   I won't be able to take a picture someday.  So I do now.

BrookWalk

When walking up the brook,
Just walk.
Don't think, just step
From rock to rock,
Left to right.
Let it be easy because it is.
Ignore what you perceive
To be slippery, tippy,
Unsteady.
Don't be afraid.

It's when you fearfully watch
Each wet step,
Gauge every mossy stone,
Get off balance in your quest,
Hesitating,
Seeking the perfect landing spot
For your tender foot,
That you lose sight of what
You are doing.
Just walk.

The sunlight will find you,
Dappled, sharp, then soft.
A rhythm will find you,
Content with the choices
You make.
Let go and walk.
You do not control
The stream,
Nor the boulders that break it.
No.  You can't.

Walk as if the river bed is
Nothing more than a road.
And it will be.
The brook will take care of you.
Firm footing always appears
Under your toes
If you trust that it will.
Just walk.
And breathe in and out.
      And do it again tomorrow.

Story Land!

A weekend in the White Mountains, camping and Story Land. (Thank God my sister Jen is more organized than I am. I remembered the tinfoil, but not much else.) The kids went into Overstimulation Meltdown a couple of times and I'm sure everyone in the nearby campsites wished we'd pack up and go back to Vermont, but mostly it was a fabulous little trip. Our campsite was beautiful, right on a river beach that Av, Eli and Ira loved playing on, and Story land was just as fun as it was when I was their age. The weather was hot and perfect, and nobody was bleeding at the end of the day, so I'll count that as a wild success.

July 4th

A scary lightning storm kept us from venturing out to the fireworks display we had planned on attending with friends last night. So, we had ice cream and sparklers at home instead. Happy Fourth Of July!

To Boston, To Boston...

On Saturday we visited Molly and Ana in Boston...and since the boys were too little to remember the last time we went, it was an exciting trip full of new city sights for them! We took the T to see the USS Constitution. (Which was the whole purpose of the trip after Eli became intrigued by a model of the ship in the one-room schoolhouse on the Tunbridge Fairgrounds.) It was an ideal time to tour Old Ironsides, it was all decked out for the holiday and teaming with sailors. The kids were super thrilled about the subway of course. But most of all, they just loved playing with their friend, Ana, at her huge neighborhood pool, where for the first time in their lives, they were the only white kids among the 75 happily splashing and cannonballing kiddos. We had a terrific time, despite my blistered feet! And now it's July! The summer is rolling right along at top speed...how I wish we could tack on an extra month or two.