JUSCHT (Switzerland), GOAT TOMME (Bodega, CA) ,JAKE'S GOUDA (Deansboro NY)
When we moved to this street, our kids were four. Now, some seventeen years later, as a few of the homes within our quaint little court-community have flipped, new families have found their way in, and the streets remain alive with the nostalgic sounds of children's play, shouts, and laughter. It's fucking annoying. Were my kids and our neighbor's THIS loud and with such ongoing consistency? It's summer, clearly. And it was all fine when they were mine. At least they were to me. Perhaps not so much to the neighbors. Particularly the ones that moved. (Suddenly, a connection appears.) Scottie seems to have rebounded from last night's semi-coma. We really have no idea what happened that had us unsure of his living through the night. In any event, he did, and I have reached out to a couple of vets. I will be taking him in for a check-up this week as well as opening the long delayed conversation regarding his teeth and gums. I fully expect to have a toothless dog by July, and likely an empty wallet. He and I will be having a "come to Lassie "discussion soon about a 4+ year longevity agreement. This means no more leaps of faith from 12-inch heights when his joints and bones are rated to 8-inch maximums. No more wandering directly underfoot in the kitchen where he's routinely tripping us in hopes we'll drop something edible, and for dogsake, he must stop eating everything he comes across, inside or out, assuming it's something edible that's been dropped. (Suddenly, a pattern emerges.) If I can get 4 or more good years out of him, the dental work will have a satisfactory ROI. Two or less and a less optimistic decision to let nature run its course, graceful and without aggressive steps being taken to accelerate it, might warrant consideration. I am half-kidding. I love this dog deeply. I do hope we have him around for at least a few more years. But good years. Not aged, blind, toothless, and incontinent ones. (The dog. Not me.) One other highlgiht: Tommy shared having re-connected with the "Days of Discovery" team at the Monterey Bay Aquarium. He has an opportunity to return and volunteer in a more hands-on way this summer. That's a great "circling back around" moment for him, having longed to be in the water and now most likely to do so, and potentially with kids from Stanford that he's been working with, too. Next stop, SafariWest?