Tails from Rainbow Bridge: A walk in the woods with Mom, Dad, Blake and Me

I was looking at the Mortal News the other day.  I  try to avoid it because the stories are about how mortals are trying to make one another immortal without realizing it is a good thing.  But I saw a story about a scene for the new Ghostbusters movie being shot at the Ames Mansion in Easton Ma and I remembered my trip to the Ames Mansion.

I was just a pup still learning the ropes from my big sister Blake.  Ames Mansion sits near a large lake with several walking paths.  Mommy was many years younger and her knees and back were still working so Mommy and Daddy and Blake and me went for a walk on the paths.

It was a wonderful April day, warm but not hot, with a high sky.  Blake and I walked along as proud as any dogs you have ever seen.  There were bigger dogs but we strutted past them knowing we were the best dogs there.  There were many twists and turns along the way.  After time Mommy and Daddy grew tired but when they checked the trail markers to lead them back to their car they kept realizing they were further away.

Daddy, who is not known for his sense of direction, studied the trail marker and saw a path that cut over a hill and determined we could get back to the car in half the time.  So we left the nicely carved trail with crushed stones and cedar chips to a wooded area with a barely marked path and streams.

Blake and I loved the walk, so many smells, so many critters, but Mommy and Daddy weren’t enjoying their trek.   There were rocks that had to be climbed over, streams that needed to either be forded or carefully crossed with their feet barely fitting on the  small plank bridges.

We reached the top of the hill and we were all tired, sweating and panting.  There was a small pond with a bench.  Mommy and Daddy stopped to sit by the water.  Foley and I stood, on leash, by the water’s edge.  Mommy told Daddy not to let us jump in the water  Daddy said don’t be foolish we would never jump in the water.  We jumped in the water.

It wasn’t very deep but it was cool, wet, and filthy.  It felt so good.  It would be the only time in our lives that either of us were in the water, and it didn’t last long as we were lifted out immediately.  Neither parent had brought a towel and now we were two soaking wet dogs with undercarriages close to the ground who still had to walk down a dirty hill to get to our car.

We started our trek again, and got turnaround a couple of times, adding more time to our adventure.  Then, climbing the hill from the other side, dressed in dark robes with dark hats and beards were a group of men.  They were Orthodox Jews.  Holy heck!  They don’t hike!  They wander!  Oh my gosh we were going to be wandering around the hills of Easton for 40 years!

But that was not to be our fate.  The men were traveling single file and we walked opposite them until we came to a clearing and our car.  Mommy got some blankets out of the trunk and laid them across the backseat of Daddy’s car before we got  into it.  If it had been her car she would have sold it right then.  When we got home we got the longest baths of our life.

But it was worth it.  It was the best walk of our life.  Paths, rocks, streams, a dip in a pond, a wandering religious group.  How could a walk be better?