Ciera has Gone Home

There sure have been a lot of changes around here in the last few days!!

Ciera had to go to the groomer on Tuesday. She was really dirty, because we’d been to the offleash beach 3 times last week! I don’t get quite as dirty as Ciera does, because I don’t have oil in my hair, and the sand and dust just fall out. On Ciera, it sticks. Then it gets on “her” pillowcase”!

Mummy was acting a bit funny that day, and I wasn’t sure what was up. When we left Ciera at the groomer, I waited outside and kept looking back, to tell Mummy we had forgotten her! But Mummy said, no, we’d come back and get her later, which we did. I was so glad to see Ciera – don’t ask me why!! – that I ran up to her and threw my arms around her neck. I don’t think she was quite as glad to see me, though..... But then, she doesn’t see anything very well.

Mummy had been busy un-packing things from the trunk of the car, bringing them upstairs and packing them again. (I don’t understand humans sometimes.) Once the car was completely empty, we took it to the hand car wash. That was kind of fun, because there were a lot of short dark people in red coveralls hosing the car down and smiling at us. After a while, we got out of the car and watched, along with some other people who were doing the same thing. Some little girls came over and played with us, too. Their mom was really pretty and nice. She had 3 little girls and a baby in one arm! Another woman came along, who also liked me. She was waiting for a Volkswagen Beetle convertible. It looked like a car to me, though.

After that, we went home, loaded up the car with all the stuff we’d taken out of it – Mummy said we’d done that, so the dark skinned people could vacuum the trunk – and drove to the airport. I’ve been there once or twice before, and so has Ciera.

There was a sign on the terminal door that said “No Dogs” but Mummy says we aren’t dogs; we’re puppies!! So we all went in and stood around something called a baggage carousel. Lots of people came past and stopped to say hello to me. For some reason, most of them were men. They got right down on my level and messed with my hair! Ciera didn’t pay any attention to them, though. Soon some people began to arrive in that room, so Mummy took us over to a place called an escalator to watch the people coming down stairs without moving their legs! 
Ciera and I stood there politely, wondering why Mummy wanted to be there – and at first we thought it was so the people could stop and say hello to us. Then, out of nowhere, we heard a familiar voice, calling out, “There they are!” and suddenly who did we see?? Why, it was Uncle Jim and Auntie Clare, Ciera’s dad and mom!! I was so thrilled I ran right over to the bottom of the escalator with my tail going in circles, so I could say hello!!

Uncle Jim moved to one side though, so the people behind him could come down. Meanwhile, Ciera sat there, not knowing what was going on!! Mummy took her over to see her mom and dad, and eventually she recognised him.... but not her own mom!!!! I could see that Auntie Clare was really hurt by that, but she was just standing there, and Jim was on the floor with Ciera, so that might be why. Poor Ciera was getting really disoriented! She kept looking for my Mummy, instead of her own. When Auntie Clare finally picked her up, Ciera struggled to get away! But when Uncle Jim picked her up, that was OK. When we were all leaving the terminal, one of those information women came rushing over to us to tell us that dogs aren’t allowed in there!! That’s probably because earlier, Mummy had been a wee bit sneaky, detouring around racks of carts whenever she saw Airport Security or anyone else with a uniform on, and waiting for Jim and Clare behind a pillar.....

Uncle Jim got in our car and drove us all to the Safeway to get some food for their place, since they’d been away 5 1/2 months, then we went back to their place. Ciera was finally feeling a bit better, because she got to sit on her mom’s lap on the way, and she recognised their building and the yard. She was happy to sniff all her favourite clumps of grass, but when Uncle Jim went to the front door and called her to come, she didn’t hear him and carried on walking away, sniffing. Mummy and I are used to that, but Uncle Jim must have forgotten that Ciera is deaf, because the next thing he did was whistle for her! Of course, Ciera kept right on going, and Mummy was mesmerised, she said, and just stood there, until Uncle Jim finally let the door go and went and got Ciera. We had to do that all the time when Ciera was living here!

I was glad we got to go inside and see where Ciera lived. She remembered it well, and went straight to the kitchen, looking for food. Her mom and dad were busy – Jim was turning on lights and checking to see how the place looked after a few people had stayed there, and Clare was putting fresh sheets on the bed. Mummy knew what time it was, though, so she got some of the lamb and rice sticks from the food bag that we’d packed for Ciera’s dinner and breakfast and threw them on the kitchen floor. I thought I’d like some too, though, so Mummy threw 2 sticks. Neither Ciera nor I had had any dinner with all the stuff that was going on.

Then Ciera got to play with her mom who was throwing sheets and pillows around on the bed. I guess they always do that, because Ciera was pouncing on the pillows Clare was shaking into cases, and jumping around under a sheet Clare threw on top of her. Clare tried to do the same thing with me, but Mummy and I don’t play when she’s making the bed, so I was just scared. We play when Mummy and I are in the already made-up bed, instead!! I like to jump on Mummy and lick her to death, and bite her hand under the sheets, and have her wrestle me to the mattress and rub-a-dub-dub my tummy!

We left them there and Uncle Jim drove us home. He was really tired! They had flown from the Canary Islands, but not Tenerife, to Madrid, to Toronto and finally to Vancouver. It took them 21 hours!! And I don’t think either of them was in a good mood when they got home!!

It was weird coming home and having the bed all to myself, but I had never slept on the pillows Ciera took over, anyway. Since then, I get to eat my dinner without “someone” looking over my shoulder and trying to get to it first!! But I kind of liked Mummy feeding me by hand, so I’m holding out for more of that!

Now we don’t have the car any more, we have been walking to the stores to get things. This is fine, though, because we can walk a LOT faster without Ciera! This afternoon, we walked to Dundarave, which – when Ciera was here – took about an hour. Without Ciera, it maybe took 20 minutes! And I got to play with my toys all the way over and back, too!! Mummy said she was so thrilled when we had to cross a busy street, and we didn’t have to stop in the middle and go looking for Ciera, or go and grab her if she was ahead.

So I don’t think I miss Ciera as much as I thought I would. Besides, the night we left Ciera at her own home, we came home and ran into Debby and Bubbles right away! We always go for walks with them at night anyway, so that was no different from usual, except we could walk faster.


The next day after she left us, we had a visit with Moira and Taffy and saw almost every dog we know in the neighbourhood! So the only change in our routine is that we don’t have to keep watching out for Ciera all the time and can have more fun. And.... Mummy can stop and talk to her friends, because I always sit right there and wait while she does it. Ciera always kept wandering off.

Yesterday, I had a bath, so that took a lot of time. Mummy likes the Tropiclean Puppy Shampoo for me and even more for herself! Mummy has grey hair that she lies to pretend is still blonde, and it makes it look much shinier. We aren’t quite as delighted with the conditioner, though. It does a good job, but it takes a LOT of rinsing to get it out! We learned from Sonya Paterson that you have to rinse the conditioner out really well, or my hair gets sticky really fast. With the Vellus, the shampoo is harder to rinse out, but the conditioner is easy!

This afternoon, Auntie Moira dropped in for a while, then a former neighbour of Mummy’s came for tea. When we went to Dundarave (high street) I met a lady in a wheelchair who was pretty and maybe in her mid-40s, but she had twisted hands and mumbled a bit. Mummy thinks she might have cerebral palsy. I sat on the lady’s lap and got quite comfortable, while she and her handsome boyfriend chatted with Mummy.

We also stopped to talk to Kenya the cat’s mom. She said he was inside eating dinner, but if we waited, she’d see if he wanted to come out and say hi. He did, but then he started to cross the street with a car coming!! Whoa!! I ran out to the middle of the street to get him to come back, but he wouldn’t follow me. Then Mummy ran out and picked ME up instead, while Kenya just strolled to the far side of the street. We felt sorry for the poor driver, who was waiting and waiting, thinking something was wrong with the cat! No, he just goes across the street, his mom said, to catch birds!!
 

Now it’s time for my dinner. It looks OK, but I’m going to see if I can get Mummy to persuade me to eat it!! ;0)