The Long Walk West

Our Tiki didn't care where we went to dog shows, with only one stipulation: he hated rain. We only disliked very hot weather, and our reasons were different. Dog show “rabids” (there aren’t any not-rabid dog show exhibitors) sign up for shows months in advance, and nothing on earth keeps them away.  If, once there, the weather is brutally hot, they spend their time inside motor homes and stay close with their dogs, keeping their dogs and themselves as comfortable as possible. Otherwise, they cruise the grounds checking out supplies, friends, the competition, vendors, and wandering show judges.






But Tiki thought dog shows were for the show chairperson to escort him around in a golf cart, for us to introduce him to most of the half a hundred breeds, and to sleep on our stall display table while visitors came and went.


But not in the rain. Rain has thunder, or at least it beats on the roof. That’s scary. He even got to distrust overcast conditions.


If you know anything about Missouri and its environs, you know that 110% of the time Tiki would hate it. And he did.
But we were the bosses of our lives and went anyway…. to Springfield, MO.


And he hated it.


He put up with one whole day, and then he insisted that he needed a walk. It seemed reasonable, so we started out.
I probably should have guessed something was afoot, because he was not checking curbs, bushes, etc.,  for random scents. He was single mindedly trotting in a fairly straight line to the edge of the show grounds and then directly along the sidewalk past the showgrounds. Then, suddenly, it hit me.


Tiki was headed west…. west by northwest….. Toward HOME.  Tiki had had it with Springfield, and he was on his way to Oregon!!!!


Still, I wasn’t positive, so I let him continue awhile.


About half a mile from the grounds, we came to a major intersection with lots of traffic and signal lights. At the curb, Tiki stopped and looked up at me. I was to escort him across the street.


I shook my head slowly no. “Not yet,” I told him. “We have to go on to Fargo after this, anyway.”