Homecoming

It was a remarkably long ride home. We had driven to Arkansas and back into Missouri the day before and then made the entire trip home the next day. I had originally planned to stop on the way down, pick up Remy on Tuesday and then stop overnight on the way back. Marty had other plans.


The weather on the way home was not on our side. We passed in and out of quite a few substantial rainstorms. At times it was difficult to see the road. Travel is hard on me anyway and the added stress of a ridiculously long trip and bad weather was making it nearly intolerable. The bright spot in the whole thing was Remy. When we left the hotel, Remy stood on the console with his head on Marty's shoulder. I think he was navigating in his puppy way. Soon he fell asleep.

Remington napping on the ride home.

I was afraid, on the trip down, that we'd find that the new puppy was as truly awful as a passenger as Tucker had been. Both on the way home from Kentucky and on the way back to return Tucker we were totally grossed out. He drooled like no dog I'd ever seen all the way home. The backseat was soaking wet. On the way to return him, he threw up three times. In the week and a half that we had him, he'd pretty much grimed the backseat almost beyond repair. Thank God Marty was willing to spend hours scrubbing and blotting to get the seat back to looking and smelling nice again!

Remy waits for Daddy to gas the car.

Remington, on the other hand, rode as if he'd been doing it for years. No drool, no carsickness, no whining of any kind. As I wrote, it was easy to forget he was even there. The only trouble we had was getting him out of the car as he was still terrified of all the noise and activity at each stop. He literally screamed when we tried to take him out of the car. We thought we'd end up being arrested for puppy abuse. In the car, however, he was a dream!

A quick kiss & everything is fine.

Finally, after rainstorms, construction zones, freaking pup, and dark of night, we made it home. Remy, of course, had to be dragged from the car, but he was relatively calm when he met our middle son, Kenny. He was also very good when he met Houston. Houston was interested but was more excited about seeing me and his dad again.

Remy is a little cautious about meeting the big guy!

In spite of Remy's lack of socialization, he was excellent about meeting our youngest son, Pete and Pete's girlfriend. He exhibited a little shyness but was willing to have them pet him. He even tolerated some snuggling from Pete's girl.

We spent some time in the living room and Remy seemed to get comfortable with that room fairly quickly. He was reluctant to move from there to the bedroom but I was in a lot of pain from all the travel and activity and just wanted to get into bed. Kenny took Remington outside then we brought him toward the bedroom. He did not want to go! I had to remind myself that Remy had never seen anything but a couple of people, some dogs, some goats, and his mountain.

We decided that, since he'd done so well in the hotel room, we wouldn't crate Remington just to see how things went. They went quite well. We gave him some toys and showed him the beds and the water bowl. He settled down quickly in spite of all the excitement of the day. I had worried that, after sleeping so much in the car, that he'd want to be up all night but he was ready to turn in, too. It had been a long, confusing, frightening time for him; leaving his mountain and seeing so many new things all at once wore him out.

I'd start working on a couple of basic things in the morning, but for that night we all needed to rest. Remington was home!