Next to normal

I still have some work to do and I haven't packed a thing, but any vacation around here officially starts when all the dogs are placed.  That occurred about 4:30 this afternoon when I delivered the last four to a kennel not far from here.  Tonight we have just one dog and one cat at home.  I guess that is "normal" for a lot of people, many people, perhaps even most people, but it seems very odd and abnormal to me.  Without two or three of the foster dogs outside talking to the neighbors' dogs, the evening seems eerily quiet around here.  Without two or three of the house dogs underfoot "helping" in the kitchen, the house seems empty.  I guess some people live that way, but for me it just means that vacation is underway.

 

All the stress of the last two months of wondering about how I'm going to place, move, or board 18 or 19 dogs has evaporated.  That I don't miss at all.  Everyone is safe and sound either in a permanent home, a temporary foster home, or one of two boarding kennels.  The housesitter has only the cat and the house to watch over. 

This near doglessness is an interesting sensation, but it's only temporary.  Tomorrow night by this time we'll be at my sister's place in Kentucky where the dogs outnumber the people and the gays outnumber the straights.  That's my kind of "normal."

The blurry beagle pic is my sister's newest canine addition, Louie. He wandered in and made himself at home at her place.