In lieu of being able to write out the post I’d intended, I tweeted yesterday that it marked eleven years since I was partnered with Dolly and a year and a half that Yara and I have been a team. It’s hard to believe how quickly the time has gone by; I still vividly recall meeting both girls. Though, I’ve only ever blogged about Dolly’s meeting (which I’ve no doubt I’ll elaborate on someday). Until now, of course. :-)
“Slaphappy” would be a good word to describe me a year and a half ago. I was so wired from the excitement and anticipation that I didn’t sleep the night before. I tried a few times, but couldn’t get my mind to calm itself enough to give my body any peace. In fact, I spent most of the night and morning preceeding Megan’s arrival pestering everyone I knew online via message boards, Twitter, AIM and the like. The only problem with this was that most of my friends that would have understood or empathized with my punch drunk giddyness were sadly unavailable and so I was left with babbling to those who probably didn’t care or only vaguely got how incredible of a day it would be.
Of course, as with anything one anticipates, time was crawling by. I was pretty much out of my mind with impatience by the time noon rolled around . . . and by three o’clock was nearly to the point of panic. The doorbell rang sometime after that and my crazed excitement evaporated immediately into a mess of nerves and trepidation. A million different thoughts zoomed through my head, too many to even fixate on any particular one. So, while I was definitely disappointed that Megan wasn’t standing on the other side of the door with leash in hand, I was actually just the tiniest bit relieved to delay the meeting just so I could collect myself.
That delay ended up being something like 45 minutes while Megan went over all the various paperwork and equipment she’d brought with her. All this passed in a blur, though I tried desperately to pay attention. Eventually, whether by reading my lack of interest or because she actually was finished with what she needed to say, Megan put her hands down on the table and looked me straight in the eye, “So, are you ready to meet Yara?”
Yes! I shouted in my head, though I only managed to nod my head, feeling a stupor engulf my brain. I waited inside while Megan first took her puppy, Stella, for a walk and then Yara before lightly knocking on my door to be let in again. I don’t remember what I did during those few minutes, aside from sit at the table fidgetting, but it felt like an eternity had gone by.
The first thing I realized when I pulled open the door was that Yara was a lot bigger than I’d imagined her. Taller. Longer. The second was that she wasn’t remotely what I’d call “grey” as she was described to me over the phone and in her paperwork. But all of that was pushed out of my head almost the instant I thought it as she tried to drag Megan into the house and bounce around all over. I suddenly felt exhausted and old just watching her; how any living thing could have that much energy and not explode confounded me!
Megan had me walk Yara through the apartment to explore and we attempted to feed her. Megan didn’t stay too long after Yara was brought in and all too soon we were left to ourselves. Obviously, if there had been an issue I could have called her and her hotel was not even five minutes from my home. But, believe it or not, I was quite literally scared to have her go and leave me with the crazy beast of a dog! (Go figure, eh?) The very fact this was so stressed me out a bit. As did the constant ear-piercing whining. Eventually, though, Yara calmed down and settled herself.
She spent the majority of the afternoon, evening and night staring at me. It was kind of unnerving, especially in the middle of the night when every move I made caused her to jump up. But strange as it might sound it was also endearing and I grew used to her constant supervision rather quickly.
Truly, she’s a very interesting companion.
