How I Spent My Summer Vacation - FIDO Style - Don’t Forget Me!
September 04, 2019 • Travel • Trends • Most Popular •
Footsteps wake me from my nap. I’m curled on the leather couch in the front room. It’s my favorite place to bark. I open my eyes and shift my nose to the front hallway. I see bags. Piled. Bags in the HALLLWWAYYYY! I jump from the couch, sliding sideways on the rug. BAGS MEAN VACATION! I feel my tail, it’s painting letters in the sky. Uncontrollable. Like a firework. Mom and Dad are going somewhere and I WANT TO GO TOO!
But where’s my bag? Why isn’t my bag there too? Wondering, waiting brings me to pace. I’m pacing. Vacation means grilled hamburgers with cheese; birds to chase; vanilla custard, in a cone, with whipped cream. I hope my pacing says, “BRING ME! TAKE ME!”
Pacing, pacing. I can’t stop pacing. I SEE BAGS! But I don’t see mine. Pacing, more quickly now—more like galloping. TAKE ME! I WANT TO GO WITH! GET MY BAG TOO, MOM!
Exhilaration erupts into circles. From kitchen to doorway, through living room and back. Mom and Dad go back and forth too. Dad shakes his head. “Someone’s excited.”
I WANT TO GO! “WHERE IS MY BAG?” I scream but they don’t hear. That’s when something in me pauses. My tongue hangs from my lips. I pant. I can’t stop panting, so I sit, hunched, drool pooling on Mom’s duffle bag. I WANT TO GO. Mom pets me. “Good boy.” She stacks more bags. But still, I don’t see mine.
I’m back to pacing. Then I’m doing circles. And now, I’m screaming. It comes out like whines.
Outside, Mom and Dad fling bags into the truck bed. They are going to leave. BUT I AM STILL IN THE HALLWAY! “DON’T GO WITHOUT ME!”
I cry. Loud as I can. They hear me. They yell back. “QUIET!”
“DON’T FORGET ME!” I bark at the front window. That’s when Mom turns and walks up the driveway. She opens the door to the garage and SHE IS CARRYING MY BAG!
THEY ARE TAKING ME! I explode out the front door, sliding down the driveway. I jump to my spot in the cab.
Dad turns and pets me. “Relax, buddy. You always think we’re going to leave you. But we would never leave you.”
The car accelerates but my energy subsides. My eyelids close. I sleep—and we are on another summer vacation.
Elizabeth Jorgensen is a writer and teacher. She received her undergraduate degree from Marquette University and her master’s from Carroll University. Her memoir, co-written with Nancy Jorgensen, Go, Gwen, Go: A Family’s Journey to Olympic Gold, is available from Meyer & Meyer Sport. Learn more on her website: https://lizjorgensen.weebly.com/
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