loyal

so everyday i've been looking for things to write about, like back in the old days when i took creative writing with mrs. bruce. who, by the way was a vermont native... full circle. so yeah, this morning i was driving and saw the kids who are waiting for the bus just about everyday, and there's one house that has two teenage boys that wait outside. Everyday a pointer/hound waits patient with them. he stands next to them as they stand by the road. The dog knows when the bus approaches and waits for it to come to complete stop. one of the boys reaches down and pats his head and the dogs head tward the house and indoors. now, you may wonder how i know so many details, but it is because sometimes i get stuck right there, with the bus lights flashing and have the chance to watch it transpire; the complete devotion of a dog. I think about how amazing it is everyday, and just this morning i decided i really needed to write it down. it was my obvious blog choice.
like the fifth graders i so enjoyed teaching, i immediately made connections: connections to my life, to texts and to the world. First i thought of how cleo and jack are loyal and attached to the two of us. just this evening, cleo was feeling a little under the weather after gorging on dog food that lily had knocked over during the day (a whole other story), and she hopped up on the ottoman and then made her way to sarah's lap. she hasn't sat on a lap in years. she is simply not a lap dog, but not feeling well, she just wanted to feel safe and be held a little. the converse is true though. many nights lately sarah has had one of her migraines and cleo makes her way upstairs and into bed with sarah, snuggling up and trying her hardest to make her mom well.
I made a connection to where the red fern grows which i finally read in the last few months. It made me cry... so cliche, but true.
And then i thought of that story of the dog in japan...

Hachiko (pronounced HA-chi-ko) was born in November 1923 in Odate, in the Akita province of Japan. The next year, Ueno brought him to Tokyo. Hachiko followed Professor Ueno everywhere. He accompanied Ueno to the Shibuya train station every morning and then returned and waited for him every afternoon. But, one day in May 1925, Professor Ueno didn’t come home; he’d suffered a fatal stroke at work. Mrs. Ueno gave the dog away to some of the professor’s relatives. But the devoted dog came back and returned to the train station every afternoon for nearly 11 years, at precisely the time that Ueno’s train was due, waiting for the professor. Hachiko did this until his own death in March 1935.

thank goodness for cleo and jack.