end of summer

I'm a terrible summer blogger. But you all know that. This will probably be my last post before I head back to school for my last year. It's kinda crazy how it feels like just a week ago I was making the trip to the Midwest. And it just hit me how much I'm going to miss being here. Even with all the ups and downs of the summer, I am going to miss it. I think most of all, I'm going to miss working at the rescue. I love being able to go and hang out with the dogs and know that they will listen to whatever nonsense I have to say. I'm going to miss going into the pens and get mauled with kisses and unconditional love. While I'm gone at school, I'm not going to stop working with the rescue. I'll still be doing the online stuff, the Facebook Page, Online store, E-mails, etc. But I won't have the contact with the dogs. It sucks. Luckily, it won't be for long because as soon as finals are over, I'll be back with the dogs. All of this hit when I was working on the latest design for the Cafepress online store. It's a picture I took of Maverick, one of the battle buddy dogs. I'm going to miss that goofball most of all. Here's a short story why:

This summer, we took the dogs to the town picnic for training and exposure (read pr). At one point the first night, the other person had to go talk to someone and I was left with Maverick sitting and watching the people. Earlier that night, I had seen someone watching us and it made me nervous, but I didn't pay much mind to them because we were in a crowd. Well, while we were sitting there, that person approached us. Now, if you know Maverick, you'd know he's never met a stranger and loves all people. But I was nervous about this. He picked up on my emotions and stood in between me and the other person until the person left. He wasn't aggressive, mean or anything. He just stepped in between us and leaned into my legs. To a dog lover, that is love. He was keeping me safe. Nothing happened between me and the person, but Maverick's presence made me feel a lot safer and better.

I'm going to miss him and all the other dogs and cats. Almost as much as I'll miss my Harley and Suzy and horses. I'm going to miss animals more than people! I guess that shows what kind of person I am. Anyway, I had better end this before I get even more teary eyed and start to really shed some tears. There's still a lot of packing to be done. I'm not looking forward to packing. It's even worse than driving. Till I get to the East, over and out.