I like to take my dogs out for a walk at night to see the Christmas lights in my neighborhood. My current foster dog, Wylie looks forward to those walks. The cold night air. The flashing lights.The smell of the holiday season in the air. I have been doing Christmas lights walks with my dogs for years, and through the years there have been many dogs. Foster dogs. My own dogs. All kinds of dogs. In a few days, all of those Christmas lights will disappear from the neighborhood. I will miss them, just as I miss some of the dogs I have walked with in the past. There was Flurry, the Malamute foster with her long flowing fur. Then there was Kady, a Siberian mix with freckles on her long lean nose. There was my own dog, K2, who has gone on to the rainbow bridge. The year before, there was beautiful white Porsche who made it to the Rainbow Bridge before K2. There was Princess, another affectionate foster dog who was at my home for almost a year. There was Kodiak who had long wooly fur just like K2. All of them special fosters.
The end of the year is a time to reflect. To think about our dogs and how short a time we have with them. My foster dogs always come and go, but somehow they leave a little of themselves behind before going to their forever homes. I remember every one. My own dogs are here longer than the fosters but somehow they never stay with me long enough. I miss K2, Porsche, Balto, Tracker, Katarina and Nickita. They all went on walks to see the Christmas lights with me during holiday seasons past. I remember every walk. Missing the dogs I used to walk reminds me that the dogs I walk today will also be memories in the future. Dogs only share small portions of our lives and it is important to make that time count. For all of our dogs from the past, the present and the future, make that time spent with them count. We only get so much of it. Here is to more time spent with our dogs in the New Year.
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