Hardy’s Adoption Anniversary

Today would be the ninth year I would have owned Hardy. It was a Wednesday morning. I was there waiting for the shelter to open so I could be the first in line to adopt him. It turned out there was only one other person who was interested in adopting Hardy. That person saw how interested I was and decided to let me have him. It was one of the best days of my life.

In honor of his memory, I decided it was time to go for a walk and reflect about his life. To make the walk more of a tribute, I decided it would be best if I did it alone in the Santa Cruz neighborhood. Since it’s a condo development, and there are a plethora of buildings, grassy areas, and paved walkways, I thought I would be okay. I was correct.

There is about a twenty-minute route I’ve taken with Hardy countless times. I thought about all the times we had done this walk. It’s a lovely outing. Today it was especially beautiful because there wasn’t a cloud in the sky and no morning fog. It felt a little like I was in Hawaii on this walk. The air was humid and fresh. The sun was shining through the tall redwood and pine trees. I didn’t even need a jacket. At the view portion, I could see all the way to the boardwalk.

As my cautious nature slowly faded, I realized that I was in a cat and little dog paradise. This was a spot where, if you owned a big dog, it would feel extremely cooped up and frustrated. So I saw the prettiest cats roaming around, one who even came up to me purring, and I saw only one little white shaggy doggie towing his owner around the greenbelt. I also saw a lot of squirrels. Hardy would have loved that!

I remembered how Hardy was the perfect pet for me. He got me through some tough times in my life, and he was always up for a good brisk exercise walk. He loved it in Santa Cruz. He always got excited when we pulled into the parking lot. He loved to romp around and smell our second home. Sometimes he would get too carried away and I’d have to reel him in.

I remembered the time I took him for what I called a “Hardy leads walk.” That meant I would just follow him wherever he wanted to go. It was so cute watching him run from condo to condo, meeting the dogs that were residents there. There were also a couple of dogs that lived in nearby houses that we would see. There was one very bad wirehaired terrier that would run back and forth on the other side of his fence, barking at us like the dickens. Hardy never barked back, but simply lifted his leg and continued along with my brisk pace.

I took two laps around the place for Hardy. One in his memory, and one because I was so proud of myself that I could do it alone. In the words of Johnny Nash, “Here is that rainbow I’ve been praying for. It’s gonna be a bright, bright sunshiny day.”