For those of you who
care about such things, I actually read three adult books this weekend. One of
them was Gail Caldwell’s new memoir, New
Life, No Instructions. Caldwell’s memoir from a few years back, Let’s Take the Long Way Home, was one of
my favorites. Let’s Take the Long Way Home was the story of her friendship with
fellow writer Caroline Knapp, a friendship that had a lot to do with their
mutual love of dogs. So, it stands to reason I loved it.
A dog features in New Life, No Instructions, too. But this
story is about growing old and struggling with life changes. Caldwell had polio
as an infant and her right leg was always weaker, shorter and caused her to
limp. When she hit her fifties though, the pain became intense and she
struggled to be able to keep up with her young Samoyed, Tula. Now, aging isn’t
something I’ve missed out on, but still the thought that there might come a
time that walking dogs would be difficult took my totally by surprise. I live
by the theory, if I do something every day, I’ll be able to do that thing every
day for the rest of my life. So, Caldwell’s disability disturbed me. After all,
she was athletic and tough.
The problem for me,
of course, is that I don’t believe in having just one dog and it dawned on me
reading Caldwell’s memoir that if anything happened to Bruce, I’d have trouble
walking both dogs by myself. The old dogs were always willing to walk in
tandem. I could hold their two leashes in one hand, and like they were
harnessed together, they’d walk along side by side. They’d also slowed down
enough that even together I could keep them under control.
But Pippi and Ben,
even though they are three years old now, have not yet figured out how to walk
easily alone, no less together. After we first got them, I tried walking them
together once and just barely managed to make it back home. They pulled, not
always in the same direction, and tangled me up in their leashes. I managed to keep from getting dragged down
the road after a chipmunk only by sitting down and screaming a lot. Since then, I’ve refused to walk both of them
by myself.
But Caldwell’s book
made me realize, if I’m going to have dogs until the day I die, I better start
getting back to walking them by myself. So, this morning, I hooked them up and
headed out. It was a beautiful day – sunshine, birds chirping, warm. Pippi and
Ben refused to walk side by side, so I wrapped their leashes up short and had
one on each side of me. The first quarter of a mile was not a pretty sight. They
kept trying to change sides, sure that the other one’s sniffing area was more
delectable. I was wrapped in a leash like a mummy in no time. Fortunately,
there were no chipmunks in sight. So, I had them sit, gave them each a biscuit
bone, and untangled myself.
We proceeded down
the road. The dogs have been trained to sit whenever a car approaches and they
know there is a treat in it for them. Usually they will start sitting as soon
as they see a car coming, even if it’s a mile away. So, they sat for every car
and ate biscuit bones liberally. Ben pulled
a little ahead. Pippi dragged a little behind. I managed to be the anchor in
the middle of the parade. But we made it, which was the important thing.
And so did Gail Caldwell. I won’t give it all away, but
give New Life, No Instructions a read
and discover how for yourself.
