“Here we are again”

Killian, Irish-Setter #7, rescue #5. (iPhone photo by BobbaLew.)

—I say that every morning to my silly dog as I get up.
I don’t worry. My doctor says I’m healthy, and I feel healthy. But I’m soon to be age-76.
“So begins another day,” I say. “Thank you Lord for taking me to this next day,” a friend says as his feet hit the floor.
That friend, like me, is a widower.
“Why am I here?” I ask another friend with whom I eat out often. She’s also bereaved, and wonders why she’s here.
My wife was the one supposed to make 100. All her female relatives made over 90, and her mother made 100.
But cancer took my wife. It killed its host, and thereby killed itself.
That was almost eight years ago. I’m still here, but with a different dog. The dog my wife and I got lived four more years after my wife died, and hung with me despite the mess I was.
“That dog did her job!” my sister says.
Dogs don’t last forever, and I finally had to put down that dog at age-13.
Dogs are an immense responsibility, but I decided to get another dog.
Killian is rescue, as are four previous dogs. And now he’s very attached to me.
Well of course! I live in what could be a dog-park except it lacks a pond. About three acres, entirely fenced; an old corn-field largely reforested.
It’s Heaven for a dog; best $16,000 my wife and I ever spent. I can let my dog run loose, and he can’t run into the highway.
I give that dog free-rein. My sofa has a protective sham, and I allow the dog on my bed. He also pre-washes all plates/pans/etc.
“Here we are again,” I say to my silly dog. “What do we do this time: Kershaw Park or Lehigh Valley Rail-trail?”
Bonk-Bonk! “Let’s go, Boss;” nuzzle-nuzzle.
“You and me. We’ll hunt!”
He barks the whole way there.

• The City of Canandaigua’s Kershaw Park is at the north end of Canandaigua Lake. As for Lehigh Valley Rail-trail, click the link.
• Being retired (13 years) I try to walk my dog five days per week; two or more miles per walk. I also have a nearby town park. Appointments often get in the way.