We made special arrangements to make Walley's stay( without us) comfortable and fun. We made a reservation for him (two weeks before we booked our own flight tickets) at the New York Dog Spa and Hotel. Yeah, they have hotels for dogs too; just in case you didn't know;-) We booked a private suite for him and made arrangements for him to play with other dogs of his age and/or temperament. Also, we asked for him to be groomed on the last day of his stay (luckily the hotel has a Spa too). But, whatever and however careful and thoughtful arrangements we made for Walley so he could be happy without us for those days, that moment of saying "Bye" was terribly painful for the three of us. When we walked into the Hotel to check Walley in, a really nice lady made Walley feel at ease and home and took him to the day care play room where other Pugs were hanging out too. We watched Walley from a window to see if he was doing fine there. He looked around himself for a little while and then laid down in a corner close to the door of the play area and then looked outside the window for such a long time to see if we were still there. He could see us and I could see him asking us so many questions while he looked at us. Why are you leaving me here? Was I not a good boy? Are you going to never take me back home? And, I felt so helpless. Our flight was to leave in two hours. I broke down crying. I just couldn't hold those tears. Thankfully, Elwyn was with me to make me feel better but even he was sad to leave Walley that way. I just could not see Walley lay that way and look for us. But in a few minutes, just before we left the Hotel, the Pugs tried to cheer up Walley and that sight led us to some happy tears. There was a black pug that was particularly keen on making Walley cheer up. The Pug would touch Walley with it's paws(I wasn't sure if it was a she or he) and literally ask Walley in doggy language to come along and play with the other pugs. It wasn't too long after that, Walley began playing with all the Pugs and we could leave the place with some relief that our baby was going to be OK. It was still very hard to leave Walley. He has become such an integral part of our life now!! We just can't live without his pitter-patter at home:-) We tried to make ourselves feel better by thinking it was just two days and we were going to meet with our loving family in Michigan and that the time would fly by quickly and before we would know it, we would re-unite with Walley again.
Dad's birthday was a really nice celebration and we had a really good time meeting with family members after such a long time. Everyone was asking us about Walley and his stories so Walley was present with us in a special way all the time we were away from him. We kept checking on him by calling the Hotel couple times a day if he was doing fine and it was so relieving to hear that he was enjoying the play time with other dogs. From what we heard, he was particularly friendly with a Cocker Spaniel puppy and would spend most of his day in the play room.
Before we knew it, it was New Year's day and the time to go back home to New York had arrived. We had mixed feelings. It was sad to leave our family with whom we had a great time and we were so excited at the same time, to be seeing Walley after two days and were anticipating our little munchkin's reaction on seeing us. Would he be happy to see us? Would he be excited? Or would he be angry with us that we left him and went away for two days? We just wanted to go to the Hotel and give Walley the warmest hug we had ever given him. When we reached the Hotel, we asked for Walley and a lady went inside the Dog Run to bring Walley to us. It was such a heartwarming moment to see Walley. He was so excited to see us!! He came running towards us wagging his tail constantly and made all sorts of baby-noises. We were on the floor to hug him and he was cuddled in our arms. Oh, we were so happy to see our baby was just fine. I have to say that Walley was a little angry with us for sometime in the car when we were driving back home. Well, we don't blame him. It was right for him to be angry with us to leave him and go. He didn't show his anger by barking. He's not that type. He would just turn his face away from us when we would ask him about his stay in the Hotel. But, that being said, he was showering us with kisses the whole time we were in the car and kept his chin on Elwyn's arm while he laid his belly on my lap.
When we got home, Walley was so happy to see his bed and toys. And really, he was happy just to be at home! Our Mom and Dad and brothers, Ben and Sol had given Walley so many squeaky toys to take home with us. So, after Walley settled down on his bed, we gave him the bag of gifts from them. He was super-excited to see the toys! He pulled the toys out of the bag, one by one, and played with them all weekend. Thank you so much Mom and Dad, Ben and Sol for those fun gifts you got for Walley. He loves them all!!
Here are some pictures we took of Walley opening the bag of toys and playing with them. A big thank you to Sol and Ben for picking up such cute and fun toys for Walley!
With that sweet note, I would like to wish all of you readers, a very happy and blessed new year. May all of your dreams and desires come true in the new year. I hope and pray that in this new year, there will be no homeless or abused dog in the world. May all the dogs in the world find a home and the love of humans. God bless.
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