Love Thy Neighbor

Tomorrow is not promised for any of us. Every morning, I wake up thankful for the sun and a snoring dog who takes his sweet time getting himself to the door. I could easily hurry Gavin out of bed and down the stairs but I find his sweet hums, slow start and contortionist moves as he slithers off the bed endearing. I get to prepare for my sessions and get through some emails before entering the world. Occasionally, I do have to hoist the monkey to our destination as I remember my dad often doing with my youngest sister, Beth, after a long day at the zoo or a water park. Limp, sleepy, trusting little body thrown over his shoulder; only moving along because she had to.

Finn was very much a routine kinda guy. Every morning we walked past my dear neighbor Dennis who was on his porch reading his newspaper in front of what I guessed to be six or more dogs in the house by insane barking pouring out of his windows. He would wave and say "Morning Brandi" and I would hold my coffee cup up and mumble the same thing back to him. I still struggle to fight back tears when I run into someone I may not even remember crossing paths with before who asks, "where's your other dog?" Then I wonder if the guy sitting outside the convenience store has ever said hello to me and perhaps I dismissed him? Or worse, used my standby "no bite". I lived in a neighborhood with a lot of drunk people coming home from the Cubs game for years. For our safety, sometimes I would say "no bite" to Finn in a VERY serious voice. My big lug would look adoringly into my eyes and smile, giant tongue dripping from the side of his slobbery lip; because I said something, anything to him. That was our relationship. Finn had no clue what "no bite" meant nor would he ever bite a soul but it gave me comfort in the late hours when our condo living still required us to walk down a dark street for him to do what he needed to do to get a restful night's sleep. My chocolate nugget was really good at sawing logs too.

I have yet to have a need to use that phrase with Gavin and, I am not sure the tadpole would convince anyone to stay away from us as he jiggles back and forth like Jell-O, no matter who is passing us: children, the People Gas employees making ruckus on my street or an elderly neighbor. We are still working hard on Gavin listening to "settle" when he is really distracted and excited, everyday he does better. I have been blessed to have many neighbors I love and cherish. I was once lucky enough to have the apartment above mine open at the exact same time one of my bestest friends in the whole world, Pam, happened to be in the market to move.

We had a backyard that was locked so Finn was able to go out for business meetings without me hovering over him. One night I was in the kitchen and it was so cold outside; I let my lug into the backyard and
while I waited, he lifted his leg on the fence and raced back up the stairs. It was so frigid, Finn had no desire to be away from the warmth more than a minute or two. But, as I grabbed for the door handle, I saw he had a bird in his mouth and it was wriggling around. I was sure by the time I touched it, the poor thing would be squealing in pain. Then, what would I do? I could not stand to see an animal hurting, and I felt even worse that my sweet dog did that to another living creature. I called Pam who sent her roommate's boyfriend down to my place. She wanted as little to do with touching an injured animal as I did. So, I curled up into a ball in my living room until Chris gave me the thumbs up that the world was rosy and pink again. I sometimes recall that gal and laugh, I have opened my eyes quite a bit since then.

My hands were covering my face but I could see Chris standing in my dining room shaking his head through the fingers that pressed into my forehead. Finn was still outside, even Chris did not even have the stomach to see, oh, I just knew it was bad. Continuing to laugh, Chris guided me to the back door where Finn stood; tail swinging like a propeller. But, the bird was still in his mouth. Chris told me to look really close. And, when I did, I almost fell over laughing. What I THOUGHT was a bird's tail was the fingers of a glove. Poor lug did not know what we were making such a big deal about, but he was happy as ever, bright eyes looking back at me, waiting for us to let him back in the apartment.

This week, Gavin and I were out for a walk and he was looking up at me like a rock star. I figured out the best game ever for him on walks, though I am sure my veterinarian will be sending me a nasty gram soon. I saw an off-leash dog coming towards us. She was big, klunkhead that I have never seen before and ran right into the street, it all happened so quickly all I could do was hope the dog was friendly as she rushed Gavin and he fell over laughing. I had not realized it but I was in front of Dennis and Lois's house and within a flash, Dennis was next to Gavin and I to make sure no one was hurt. I had just stood in his yard over the weekend chatting with his lovely wife, Lois who told me all about her new granddaughter and stood a few feet away as she rested on her walker. She could see that Gavin wanted so badly to say hello to her he might knock her over in sheer excitement.

Dennis tried to wrangle the dog to take her back to where she belonged but her collar was loose and she kept pulling out of it. Finn and I had taken home a few escape artists over the years but Gavin's leash skills are not in a place I could maneuver two jumping beans at the same time. I held Gavin by his harness and gave Dennis our leash and he used the handle to make a knot so he could guide the puppy home.

 I have mentioned Finn's fan club before, the teenagers who screamed his name from blocks away and ran through all his tricks with him. I realized one icy, winter morning why they were brought into my life as three of them stood shaking Finn's paw with bare, red, chapped hands. I have spent a lot of time searching for the right gloves and hats to keep me warm out on dog walks and with clients so I offered them all my extras with a note in the bag for their mothers. Now Gavin has a fan club. We were walking to Gompers Park and six kids raced off their front porch to give Lil' Big Head hugs and hot dogs. They were impressed with his "bang bang" trick but I knew they would really love his "get it" trick. They asked me to have Gavin scale the tree over and over, my little monkey can jump ten feet into the air, he's quite the spectacle. I finally had to tell them he was tired and every attempt Gavin and I made to continue our walk, another one of the children wanted to hug him. Gavin just leaned into them while every two-legged squirt uttered, "oh, you are so cute, I love you" and made me promise to walk Mr. McLoveMuffin past their house again very soon.

The above photo of Finn was taken by the amazing and unbelievably kind, Rhonda Holcomb.