Suzanne (who never goes to the blog) commented the other day; you haven’t blogged in almost two weeks. For both of us, it’s been a very busy time at work….and that’s cut into my blogging time.
Future non-Amsterdam blog topics
- Holt 4v4 soccer tournament
- Annual physicals (with growth charts)
- Kevin’s English essay
We’re in Amsterdam as I type this; arrived this morning at 9 am local (that’s 3 am EDT). More on today’s excursions later. Let’s talk about getting the other eight occupants of the house where they needed to be, in order of difficulty.
Cats: Sometimes we’ve had to leave Michigan with cats still outside; one time we collected them all and locked them away and forgot to release them before we left. We have our approach perfected now; all cats trapped in basement by 9 am, all cats released into the house at 10 am as we left the premises on Wednesday.
Fric and Frac: Their flight to Florida left at 7:30 am from Flint; that means a 5 am wake-up call and a 5:30 am departure on Tuesday morning. Boys were up late late late Monday night, so, we figured we might have two grumpy kids BUT, they were pretty good that early. Last time we went to Flint we were stuck at the ticketing counter for an hour; this time we breezed right through, got to the gate almost 45 minutes early. They boarded the boys almost as soon as we got there, and I killed time doing work while waiting for the plane to leave (Delta wants the parent to stay until the plane takes off).
Kevin: Went with us Wednesday morning after everything was done out to Blue Lake; this is old hat for him by now and it was pretty obvious he just wanted us to be gone. Very different from the first time out here, or, even last year when he got a little teary-eyed as he boarded the bus for Germany.
Holly and Wiley: These two are the whole reason we’re doing a pre-vacation post.
I thought we had their arrangements down to a science too; get up, put some of their bedding blankets in a bag, put leashes on, get to car, go to the ‘camp’, about 15-minute drive. Roll down the back window halfway and lock the windows so nothing strange happens.
So, we’re driving along, Kevin’s in the passenger seat, Wiley’s in the back with his head out the window, and Holly is being a little pest, and my hazy memory of the facts remembers this……Holly was whining and moved to the front and sat on Kevin’s lap, and Kevin and I discussed, and then did, roll down his window to see if Holly wanted to hang her head out that window (she didn’t).
To roll down the front passenger window, I have to unlock the windows, roll down the one window a little bit, and relock them. And one of two things happened
a) I didn’t relock the windows, and Wiley hit the window down button in the back at some point after the front window was down
or
b) during that brief period while the windows were unlocked, Wiley hit the window down button in the back.
Less than a minute has gone by between Holly to the front and all of this happening, I look back, don’t see Wiley in the window, see that it’s all the way down now, and ask Kevin, “Where’s Wiley?”……hoping that he’s just gone and sat down behind me in the back seat.
Nope. Jumped out the window. We were doing between 30 and 40 on Grand River, the main east-west road through Okemos.
I can’t even describe the thoughts going through my head as we slam to a stop and turn around to see if we can find him. Kevin says I used the word that rhymes with duck a lot.
Go all the way back (about a mile) and slowly start coming east on Grand River….no sign of him in he parking lots, nothing. Next up is a field/vacant lot, no sign of him there. Get past that to some more businesses and Kevin says “there he is!”….he’s with two people over near the local Chase bank branch we use….
Quickly pull around and pull up to the bank. Wiley is lying down against the wall, and as I walk up I can see him trembling…the people there show me where he pee’d all over the sidewalk. Apparently, after he jumped, he ran across the 4-lane road to the other side, ran back across to the side he was on when we found him, and the cars that he ran through must have given him the scare of his life (right after the scare of jumping out of a car going about 35 miles per hour!).
He looks to be unhurt; no scrapes, can stand on all legs. I have to pick him up to get him back in the car (and he’s scrambling, scrambling(!) to get back in the car, and ask Kevin to move to the back to check him out as we continue our journey to doggie-camp. Get there, get the leash on, and he hops out of the car, does his business, and looks like nothing happened.
He did not go anywhere near the window for the last ten minutes of the drive.
Talk to the people there, ask them to watch him closely because if there’s something internally wrong, we won’t see that right away. Call back after we drop Kevin and they report he’s doing just fine, he’s gone outside, he’s walked, he’s not limping, etc.
He’s one damned lucky dog.
