Percy: Hey, Marcus, remember this picture of us from a couple of years ago?
Marcus: Yes, I remember. I still had pointy ears then. I got such a shock yesterday, though, I almost had pointy ears again.
Percy: What happened? You get chased by a squirrel?
Marcus: No, silly! Jan and I take the same route on our walks. We walked Monday morning without any problem. In the evening, we set out as usual at a fast pace. Not fast for me, fast for Jan.
Percy: I know you didn't trip her. She returned in one piece.
Marcus: We didn't get very far before we heard a male voice yell.
Guy: "Ma'am, there's a snake up there!"
Jan: "There's a WHAT WHERE!"
Guy: Just ahead of you. It's a big ole black snake."
Percy: He was kidding, right?
Marcus: The guy was sitting in a pickup truck in a turnaround ahead of us on the other side of the street. Jan and I hotfooted it across the road to the truck.
Guy: It was over there slithering in the grass beside the sidewalk. I can't tell from here what it is, but I saw you and your dog coming and I didn't want either of you to get bitten."
Marcus: Jan's old eyes couldn't see anything in the grass from that far away, but that area of the mill is overgrown and the grass by the sidewalk needs a good mowing. She really wanted to see and take a picture of that snake, but no way was she going over there. Whatever it was, she knew it could move faster than she can. She thanked the guy before he drove off slowly, watching that side of the road. It was really nice of him to stop and wait so he could warn us.
Percy: So you turned around and came home?
Marcus: No, we took our walk on the side of the road with no sidewalk. I think we're going to be walking on that side for a long time. That really gave Jan a scare.
Percy: And you?
Marcus: Not me! Nothing scares me! ** leaps onto the swivel chair** EEK, it's a snake!
Percy: I thought nothing scares you! That was Taylor dragging a shoelace through the room.
Marcus: Oh ... er, I was just showing you how Jan would have reacted if she had seen the snake.
Percy: Uh-huh. Nice try.
I would like to thank everyone who left a comment on our blog (Farewell Merci) or on Facebook, or emailed us. Merci's passing was not a surprise. She was 17 years old, blind, slightly deaf (wasn't the least afraid of the vacuum cleaner any longer), and had dementia. She'd been "in hospice" here for a while.
I nearly lost her last September at the same time Buddy died but she rallied. I coped these past months by doing what I could for her and not talking about how she was. Even if we think we are prepared for a death, we actually aren't.
Thank you, Ann of Zoolatry, and
Ingrid, Pipo & Dalton from Meezer's Mews & Terrieristical Woofs
... for the lovely graphics.
