COMPLETE: 31 days of 5-minute free writes

It’s official. Our two-week stint of dogsitting is over.

My son and daughter-in-law arrived back in Tallahassee from their trip last night, and headed home to Sanford today, Embry in tow.

My husband was looking over my shoulder at a message I had sent someone about Embry’s upcoming departure — I had used a “cry” emoji and he laughed. The thing is: I meant it!

It was a total pain having a rambunctious puppy around — from the standpoint of his energy level, the amount of concentration my work (editing) requires, and the constant negotiating territory between him and the cat(s) (Alice Cooper got put to sleep the Monday after Embry arrived on a Thursday, but we’re just going to avoid any possible correlations there — her kidneys were failing, so she was headed to the Rainbow Bridge anyway).

Anyhow. There’s SO MUCH I didn’t know the first day I was responsible for Embry. I dug out this harness thing from his bag and awkwardly put it on him the first morning I needed to take him out, because I didn’t see his collar.

When I asked my son/daughter-in-law to explain how to put the harness on, they said, “You don’t need it — just attach the leash to his collar.”

Me: “I don’t see his collar” (after which we all tried to figure out where it was)

Here’s the thing: IT WAS ON THE DOG! I just didn’t look hard enough under all that fur ha ha ha.