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A Simple Thank You, my Little Knee and Surprise Surprise

Have you seen them? Those little white, stick figure decals on the back of cars announcing to passing vehicles and the world at large, how many people you have in your family. When I first started seeing them a while ago, they where very basic, a Papa, a Mamma and a couple of kids and sometimes a dog, but they are getting a little more complicated. Nathalie and I had a laugh the other day, with a modern take on the traditional window announcement, because the father was in a chair with a remote control in his hand! I love it. The best for me so far though was the one I saw last week, when I passed what looked like a hybrid mini-van with two mother stick figures and one child. We have purchased ours, and just have to put them on, but we have been holding off, because we have yet to find the two little frog sticks.

Missing 4 Months, a Signature and a Year of Firsts

4 weeks before May 20th, I had a little conversation with Bentley the super dog, after reading a look in his eyes that reminded my of a line in my favourite poem by Robert Service called “The Cremation of Sam McGee”. In the piece, after a long trek in the cold and snow, the main character – Sam, who hates the weather and is not well, says to his friend and travel companion, “I’ll cash in this trip I guess”. You see Bentley was struggling to make it up the stairs on his own, and the look in his eyes, said it all to me. I am tired, I am in pain, I don’t like this and I am done. I asked him if he was ok, and picked him up, rubbing the back of his neck like I had done so many times before, and he looked away, almost as if to say, please don’t look at me. I knew at that moment for sure, that his 14-year trip with us was drawing to a close.