By Neville Ryan

When I finished Part 1 things were very sad in the house. Mum had left us and dark days followed. My Guy was very sad and I tried to help by staying as close to him as I could. I followed his every move and he called me “his little shadow”. I was a bit irked by that because I was a big boy but I didn’t let him know that it bothered me. Even though he was sad we still went for walks. My Guy needed to get out of the house a lot! We walked to the park, we walked during the day, we walked in the rain, we walked to the docks to meet Eddy and Irie and we walked at night (often at 3am). It turned out that having me meant that during the early hours we could walk anywhere we wanted at any time and the local gendarmes wouldn’t ask us “what the hell were we doing out at this hour of the morning”? I loved it! We went everywhere together. Either walking or in the car. The car was my favorite. I could stick my head out and bark (I mean talk) at every imaginable dog, person or object.

As time went on things started getting better. Less walking in the early hours and less walking in general but the play time was steadily increasing. We would go down to the canals near us and play with the Frisbee. We did this until My Guy started getting annoyed with the way I finished the game. He would have thrown the damn Frisbee forever but I would get tired so when I wanted to end play time I would walk over and drop the Frisbee in the canal. Normally he wouldn’t mind, but after I did it a couple of times when the tide was out and he had to use poles to try and lift the Frisbee from the mud (about 8 feet) the Frisbee was left at home. I had a great time running around the canals because My Guy would take my leash off and I could run and sniff to my hearts content. All was well until I cut my foot and we had to rush off to the vet. When I recovered, we went back to the canals and I ate something and almost collapsed which meant another dash to the emergency animal hospital at midnight. After that no more canals!!!!!!!

Life started getting back to normal. We would see Eddy and Irie a lot. Irie taught me how to swim in a river and I actually liked it. A river is so much nicer than the ocean which has waves or a pool which has steps. My favorite time was walking down to the docks at night and meeting Eddie and Irie at the little cafe on the waterfront. We would sit outside and while the boys were having coffee we would get treats and people passing by would play with us. Then we would all walk the full length of the waterfront and Irie and I would stop to sniff and pee the whole way. On the way back we would say goodnight to Eddie and Irie and we would walk home. What a great night. At other times we would visit Kerry and I would play with her Sylvester toy. It was my favorite toy in the whole world and she gave it to me when we left Florida. I really looked after it until Sammy got hold of it and ate his head. I still play with it when it is brought out of hiding but Sammy is not allowed to touch it. We would visit with Dana and Maggie and the cat and I would try and eat the cat’s food. Good times!

Things continued to improve but I could still sense an under current of sadness. As much as I tried I couldn’t help to lift it. What to do? I was lost. Then one night it all changed. He called someone and ended up speaking for 4 hours. I was exhausted listening to it all, especially when you can only hear one side of the conversation. After that conversation life changed. Their was a lightness in the house and My Guy was genuinely happy. These phones must be magical because they seem to have the ability to make people happy, angry or sad. Luckily, this time the phone brought joy. The phone calls kept happening and My Guy was getting happier by the day. I used to love sitting outside with him on the verandah while he was talking. The lightning was flashing, the thunder was booming and it was raining cats and dogs. I wish it was really raining cats. After one of these phone calls I could tell his joy had returned. He looked at me and gave me a big hug and said “We are going to California”. Whhhaaattttt?