The first stop on our journey is to visit relatives in Maineville, near Cincinnati. Orion's sister Savvy lives here with humans Mary Kay and Paul. So does his mom Caper and aunt Holly and nephew Pirate and Destiny, a dear friend. Mary Kay's and Susan's roots penetrate deep into the sediments of the World of Show Dogs. Mary Kay is Orion's breeder. She showed Kyra, who was Zeus's true love, and Zeus, of course was Susan's cherished fur child and prized show Champion. And so it is with the anticipation of enjoying each other's company, if however briefly, that we enter their abode.
With humans scurrying carrying bags and making lunch, the dogs schmooze and relax and sniff old times. The airs are charged with the scent of Caper's season, and mother and son will have to be physically separated lest they conceive an OOPS litter, which I think stands for Orion Oedipus Progeny Slip. And no sooner does Orion start to get caught up on all the news than his sisters Leilani and Cally appear with their human's Theresa and Mike. And all the dogs and humans are laying around sniffing and reclining and eating and just plain enjoying each other's company. Ah, it's nice to be back on the road.
Later on we all lounge on couches and cheer the Packers on to victory in the Super Bowl. There's a wonderful equity of species here, with great love and respect, dogs occupying most of the prime seating. During the halftime spectacular Mary Kay relaxes for the first time, covered in dog. The scene makes my mind drift off to a snapshot of a visiting Mary Kay cuddling two other pups that one day unexpectadly entered our lives, Thelma and Louise, the Beagle girls.
Susan and I were returning to Michigan from the Florida Keys and we decided to stop at Big Bone Lick State Park in northern Kentucky [that's its name, honestly] to give our dogs Gaia and Zeus a well deserved walk. The day was cold and overcast, and we donned our Michigan winter gear to hike an ascending trail in this deserted forested wilderness. And as we turned a bend, with Gaia and Zeus leading the way, we were stopped in our tracks by a pitiful sight. There, ten feet ahead, shivers an old, filthy, skinny beagle, obviously abandoned. She shys away as we approach, but looks back over her shoulder to see if we are following. We trail along until she makes a sudden turn into the weeds along side the trail. There, crouched in the tall grass, is an older, skinnier beagle. It is too weak to stand so I carry it back down the trail with everyone else trailing. Susan waits with dogs and car while I run down to the park headquarters. In a bit I'm back with a ranger who tells us the park is a favorite dumping place for dogs that will no longer hunt. If they're still here in three days he'll call the county to come get them. We wait until he's gone and load all the dogs into the car. Hell, they'll certainly be dead in three days.
Susan cuddles the helpless Louise on her lap while Thelma wraps herself around her feet. I come up with their names while we wait for a big sack of White Castle burgers to feed the starving pups. By the time we reach home Louise is looking better. The next day our vet says they will both recover fully, and that they are about three years old. What a surprise. For the next three months they joyfully join our family. For a while, we consider adopting them, our granddaughter Rachel adores them, and we're growing fonder by the day. Soon we'll be hooked. But there's a problem. When we're out hiking on a trail we let our dogs run off lead. But you can't do that with beagles, because they're scent hounds they'll run off into the bush led by their noses. So Susan reluctantly posts internet notices and soon there is a lovely young couple knocking at our door, having driven all the way from Maryland. Would you believe that it's been their dream since they were married to to adopt a pair of beagles and name them Thelma and Louise?
The next day we depart on the next leg of our journey to the Super 8 Motel in Independence, Missouri. As we say our goodbyes I am blissfully unaware of the significance that a motel location picked at random off a Google map will have on the tone of the next few days of our journey.
Sincerely yours in destiny and adventure,
Stan
