Flashback to rehab with pre-Honey dog Nadine

Nadine is the only other dog I've owned. Now that I've been suckered - I mean charmed into adopting Honey, and have learned about pits and their personalities, I realize Nadine was part pit, too. She had such a pretty, deer-like face with large lovely eyes, you wouldn't have thought it but her thighs should've been a clue. She was a great dog and also rescued (I was just old enough where, when I asked the question "can I keep her, huh, huh?? can I?" - I got to answer myself "why yes, you can.") She was less intense than Honey but she was also a couple of years older so we'll see if Honey mellows.

Nadine and I walked every morning for about four miles making a large square route on the prettiest path through suburbia. One time when I was sick for a couple of days and we weren't able to walk, somehow, Nadine got out. I was completely freaked out calling for her everywhere. I dragged myself to the car (I was still pretty ill) and started driving around looking for her, calling out. At a certain point, I was coming from the other direction on our morning route and there she was in the distance, trotting along toward me. She had taken herself for our walk.

Nadine had a pretty serious back operation when she got older and needed to have a lot of care. My mother came over while I worked in the morning and watched out for her. Nadine had a super dog basket bed, her food and water were brought to her on a raised platform, and she was very carefully carried, then helped out to use the lawn facilities. Her recovery was kind of slow but she was an older dog. One day I came home and my mother said, "I think she's feeling better." I asked her how she could tell. Well, my mother had made herself a cup of tea and cut a piece of cake. She put them on the coffee table and then went into the office to grab a magazine. When she got back, the cake was gone. Nadine hadn't moved - was just lying there resting quietly in her bed and the cake had been on the table across the room. My mother started to think - "did I eat the cake and forget all about it?" "Did I really cut myself a piece?" She started to go back to the kitchen to see if somehow she had left the cake slice there but stopped to pet Nadine who was looking up at her plaintively. And there, in Nadine's whiskers, my mother could see the cake crumbs. Somehow Nadine had zipped over to the coffee table, gobbled down the cake and made it back to the bed to look in time to lie back down and look pathetic.

I know I'm far away from my travels with Honey....rehab is killing us but we're doing the best we can. Until then - Just Desserts are very good store-bought cakes.