13 The Best Day Yet

Before Grandma gets into bed, she says her prayers ending with, “Thank You, God. This has been the best day yet.”

Well, I had the Best Day Yet today!

Grandma has been very busy lately. Too busy, in my opinion. She was injured in a fall almost two years ago. I had to stick close to her as she relearned to see and to think and to talk. I’m so glad she’s recovered and working again, but that certainly changes things around here in that we don’t play as often as we did.

She spent a few hours with her writing mentor this afternoon while I snoozed in the car. She was ready to go home after the meeting, then gazed upon me.

“You know, little buddy,” she said, holding my face in her right hand. “We haven’t played in a while. Let’s go to the dog park.”

We had discovered the dog park the previous winter when she was going through concussion rehab for her brain injuries. Smelling for dogs is like reading the newspaper. The dog park is like reading all the newsfeeds on the internet at one time. I love it!

Beyond dogs running around chasing each other and smelling each other’s butts, extraordinary things can happen there.

One time, Grandma met a young man from Alabama with a dog named Skipper, only two hours away from where Grandma grew up. They knew each other’s town- it was like a homecoming, talking about the warmer weather back there and the Southern food. They joked about starting their own restaurant where “real barbeque” would be served.

As we rode along, I began to recognize some turns, stood at my window and squealed the rest of the way to the park. Grandma was impressed that I remembered. A lady with a little dog on leash stepped aside to let us through the entrance, and we parked. I WAS SO EXCITED!

Grandma led me to the fenced area, where it’s divided into little dog park and big dog park. I like the big dog park because it’s larger. But if there are too many big dogs, Grandma takes me where the little dogs go.

The only other dog was the one on leash with the woman who was in the big dog park, waiting for us. Grandma did not know her.

“I saw your little yellow dog and had to meet him,” she smiled. “I had one that looked just like him. He ran off and was run over. It broke my heart. I had to see your dog.”

“I know about dogs running off,” Grandma said as she watched me play with her dog. “This is Petey. He has his own blog. We just posted some stories about his running off.”

The woman wrote down peteypodengo.com then looked up. “This is Scooter. I’m Suzanne.”

“Petey is so excited to have a dog friend his own size!” Grandma was happy for me.

She was right.

Imagine Arnold Schwarzenegger meeting his long lost sibling.

“You are my bwotheh!” one says in a deep voice.

“And you are MY bwotheh!” the other responds.

We had fun and welcomed another dog that showed up.

The big guy is named “Winter.” He knows how to play, that’s for sure!

“Winter” was a bit much for us, so in a short while Aunt Suzanne (in Grandma’s world, everyone is family by heart!) and Grandma took us on the walking trail. That was fun, too. They talked about writing and art and music. I saw Grandma so happy to find a kindred sister who loves God.

That made my day a bigger fun. As we drove off, I wagged my tail and barked to Scooter, “I’ll be back!”

Grandma agreed we could go back sometime so I could play with Scooter. This time I will get to go in the house while she visits her new friend. Grandma’s good news is she has been looking for an illustrator for one of my books. She found one. Or rather, I brought one to her!

This has been the Best Day Yet.