Friday was a moving day for us.
I was a little confused at first because mommy and daddy had told me that we’d be staying at Aunt Cheryl’s house until September and I knew that Friday wasn’t September already.
Then they explained to me that we were just going away for the weekend to a place called, Rock Lititz. I still didn’t really know what that was, but I knew that we’d be back to Aunt Cheryl’s again on Sunday.
Mommy and daddy started loading things up into the house on wheels and I started to get excited. Once everything was loaded, I went out to the house on wheels and waited for daddy to open the door for me and he said, “No pal, that door isn’t working right now so you have to come in the front.”
I was really confused because our house on wheels has three doors and I’ve only ever used the big one on the side. It took me a little while, but I figured it out and climbed up into the house on wheels. It was still very weird to me to go in through the front door like that though. Daddy said that he takes the house on wheels to get it back to normal on Tuesday, so we’d just have to do this new trick for the weekend. I can’t wait until Tuesday!
We were off to Lititz! Mommy and daddy were going to this thing called, “The Growth Now Summit Live!” Their friend, Justin Schenck has a podcast, like my daddy does, only more people listen to his than to my daddy’s. It’s called the Growth Now Movement. Daddy’s going to be on his podcast tomorrow and Justin was on my daddy’s podcast last year. Justin put this event together and brought in brilliant speakers from all over the world so that people can grow in the four pillars of their lives – Business, wellness, spirituality, and relationships.
When I heard that, I thought to myself that I could have saved Justin a lot of time if he would have just had me speak to the crowd. I would have just said, “Hey humans, be more like dogs! Live in the moment, take lots of naps, make sure that everything you come across passes the sniff test, and if it doesn’t, just pee or poop on it and move on.” Presto – speech over, now everybody gets to pet me, and let’s go eat!
But humans are very complex creatures. I love them, but struggle to understand them sometimes. Even my two humans are great, but I have to work hard to keep them grounded at times. So, it’s good that Justin puts on events like this to help his fellow humans because sometimes it takes humans a long time to figure out what we dogs have known our entire lives.
Once we got to Rock Lititz on Friday, daddy found out where our house on wheels would be parked for the weekend and we got all set-up. It was going to be hot, so we started the generator up and put the air and some music on for me while mommy and daddy went inside to learn how to be more like me.
I slept right through a rain storm and mommy and daddy would come hang out with me during some of their breaks.
We even went on a slow stroll around the campus in between the Friday sessions and the VIP Reception. I spotted a couple of dog lovers right away and they petted me.
After that last VIP thing of the night, I went out for my last potty break and daddy and I strolled around the campus for a little bit again. We saw a crowd of people and a lady said, “There’s Youk! He’s gonna be famous!” Apparently, mommy and daddy had told her and her husband that I was writing my children’s book, so they were excited to meet me. I can’t blame them, just about everyone is excited to meet me. A bunch of other people in that group started petting me too. It was pretty awesome.
Then we started walking back to the house on wheels and saw Justin! I was so excited to see him and of course he was excited to see me too! He started petting me and telling me how soft I was. If he stopped, I would start barking a little and then he’d keep petting me. It didn’t take long to train him because he’s a smart human.
Me and daddy got up early Saturday morning and walked two miles around the Rock Lititz campus. I’ve never seen so many loading dock doors in one place before. We also saw a cool sunrise that morning too. After our walk, mommy and daddy went for breakfast. Daddy brought a big piece of bacon back for me! It was delicious. Life is good.
I could tell how much mommy and daddy needed to go to this event. Each time that they came back to the house on wheels, you could just see the glow in their eyes!
Sunday morning, we woke up pretty early and decided to go to church. Mommy and daddy’s church is called Swamp Lutheran Church because it’s on Swamp Church Road, but I’ve never seen a swamp there. It must be one of those human things. I stayed in the A/C during the service, but then after the service, one of my biggest fans, Deb Kohl, insisted that mommy and daddy bring me into the church to say hi to everyone. I know that she’s one of my biggest fans because every time that mommy or daddy put a picture of me on Facebook, she puts a big heart on it! Pictures of mommy and daddy just get a thumbs up from her, but all of my pictures and blogs get the big heart! Deb is smart like that.
I went in there and everyone wanted to pet me! Deb even got down on the floor with me! It was so much fun, so many people petted me, I can’t even remember all of their names. But I do remember Randy and Lori’s names because they both petted me almost as much as Deb. But the main reason that I remember Lori is because right before we left, she came out from the kitchen with a cookie. Then she asked me if I’d like a piece of it. I sat down right away, gave her my best puppy dog eyes, and said, “You know I do!” I made sure that she gazed into my eyes and she didn’t just give me one piece of that cookie. I ended up getting the whole thing! It’s all in the eyes man, just get them to look into your eyes. It never fails. My work here was done.
Off we went for mommy and daddy to get lunch and then visit mom-mom at Country Meadows.
I hadn’t seen mom-mom for a long time, so I was excited to visit. Mommy made sure that I was allowed to go up to her apartment first and of course they said it was fine. We went into this thing called an elevator. I was never in one of those things before. It was pretty neat. We stepped in, the doors closed, and next thing you know, they open up again, and we’re on a different floor! My mind was blown!
Mom-mom was really happy to see me and I was happy to see her too. She petted me and we had a nice visit.
Then as we were heading back out to the house on wheels, we went into that elevator thing again and like magic, ended up down on the first floor. As soon as I came out of the elevator, a lady said, “Awe, look at the therapy dog!” I’m not officially a therapy dog, but like daddy once wrote in one of his blogs, all dogs are therapy dogs, some just get the vest.
As soon as I heard that lady say that, I knew that I had some work to do! I went right up to her and let her start petting me. There was a whole group of people there playing a game and they all wanted to pet me. They stopped playing their game for a little while and I went around to everyone of them and let them pet me. I could just feel the stress and sadness leave their bodies as they’d pet me.
Here I thought I was just going to Country Meadows to cheer up mom-mom and as it turned out I ended up cheering up a whole bunch of people!
What an amazing day!
After we left Country Meadows, we went back to church because the new pastor, Scott was being installed.
I was happy all weekend because I knew that mommy and daddy were really happy all weekend too. They got see a bunch of friends and meet new people at Justin’s event and they got to see all of their friends at church too, it was just a really good weekend for all of us.
When we got back to Aunt Cheryl’s house, I went right into her room to see her. She wasn’t feeling well and that me sad. I think I still made her day a tiny bit brighter though when she saw me. I really love Aunt Cheryl and it makes me sad to see her in so much pain.
Some men in an ambulance came to pick her up in the middle of the night and take her to the hospital. Mommy and Rebecca drove there to be with her. I wanted to go so bad, but daddy said that me and him had to stay here because I wouldn’t be allowed in the hospital. That stank, but I guess I understood. I still need to figure out how to get the vest though. I’d probably be allowed in if only I had one of those stupid vests. Daddy and me still stayed up until about 6:30 in the morning. Well, actually, I can’t lie, daddy stayed up, but I did sleep a little bit, maybe even a lot. Mommy and daddy would text back and forth and daddy would tell me how Aunt Cheryl was doing.
Mommy and Rebecca came back around 9:30 and went right to bed. I could tell that they were exhausted. Daddy slept for about 90 minutes, but then started writing. Daddy uses writing for therapy. I can understand that because I do too.
Aunt Cheryl is still at the hospital, but when she comes home, I’m going to let her pet me as much as she wants and I’ll even let her give me some treats if she’d like too.
Cancer sucks.
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