Lexie

Judy and Lexie

      I came into the house the other day after returning from the library.  Something was wrong. There was no frenzied barking, no whirl of light gray fluff around my ankles, no sense that someone was quietly resting in the bedroom. I looked all around, a little befuddled, before I remembered.  Where was the dog?

Lexie under the hearth

Chair mates

     Lexie had gone home to her real house the day before.  For the past few years  we've been taking care of her whenever her owners, Ed and Ruth, go on a trip.    Lexie had been abused before she wound up at  the shelter that Ed and Ruth adopted her from.  For several years, she wouldn't come out from under the couch for anyone but Ed.  Judy worked hard to lure her out.  Now, when there is a crowd at Ed and Ruth's, Lexie will emerge for Judy and sit on her lap.
    When Lexie first came to our house, she hid under the hearth, where she was warm and protected.  After a few visits she ventured across the room to sit with Judy in the brown teddy bear chair.  That position, plastered next to Judy, is still where she seems to feel most comfortable.

   Now Lexie acts like a real dog at our house.  She stands by the back sliding glass doors, plotting her attack on the squirrel.  When we let her out, she zooms to her position at the base of the big ash tree.  The squirrel teases her by clinging upside down to the trunk, two feet above Lexie's highest bounce.  The squirrel chatters and Lexie barks.  Then the squirrel spirals around the trunk and Lexie circles the base  of the tree and they start the standoff all over again.  Other times, Lexie races out the door to the side fence, to put Arnie, the big dog next door, on notice that she is a heavy threat.

Ed and Lexie

Arnie is not worried

    Lexie barks a warning when Sheila arrives to walk in the morning.  She barks in alarm when I come into the house, and keeps it up until I sit in my accustomed chair.  The she knows it's only me.   When she is ready to go to sleep for the night, she stands at the end of the hallway and yammers away, telling us that it's time for bed.
    Judy and I hate to give Lexie back to Ruth and Ed.  Judy finally admitted to me, "I don't want another dog, I want that dog."  We plot about how to keep her.  We urge Ed and Ruth to go on more cruises.  But the day always comes when she has to be returned.  Ed misses her, and wants her back the minute he arrives home.  When we see his joy at seeing her again, we know we have to let her go.