Two best friends finding beaches

In many ways, Scout and I have built the foundation of our life together on wet salty sand. You’d think that would be unstable, you know?

Scout and I have been two best friends finding beaches—and posing on them in “middle” position!—for so many years now. Not bad for two creatures from the landlocked Midwest.

It’s not lost on me that the vast majority of my reflections re Scout lately include some version of staring back at the past. I used to be so forward-looking: I’d end most posts with “onwards and upwards, cattle dog!” and mean it wholeheartedly. It felt like we had mountains to climb and miles to go until she grew into the dog I’d dreamed of (and I became the person she deserved).

I guess that happened at some point, sort of quietly. Like John Green wrote all those years ago in his most famous novel: “the way you fall asleep, slowly and then all at once.”

Of course, we are still excited about the future. We’ve got a lot of adventure left in us, me and this dog and our Sean and our yellow van! But there’s nothing we haven’t accomplished that I still desperately want to, which is both peaceful and strange, sometimes, particularly because so much of my psyche surrounding dog ownership was about optimizing and growing and doing more more more for so long.

I remember the very first time we brought Scout to the beach. We moved to Florida for Sean’s job right when the pandemic was declared, and as soon as a dog-friendly state park opened we rushed there for sunrise. I still have the photos I took that morning of Scout’s paw prints in the sand. How exotic it felt! Her paws in the sand!!

It took a while for her to get comfortable on said sand—to not dart away from every wave, to not slink low to the ground beneath the breeze off the ocean. She will probably never love the beach as much as I do (I don’t really do astrology, but I have been told by several friends that this fits with me being a water sign) but I like to think she also feels “at home” whenever we visit one. Recognizes the through line.

In many ways, we built the foundation of our life together on wet salty sand. You’d think that would be unstable, you know?

But for all the erosion and rip currents and wind gusts, it’s actually a hell of an anchor.