This is Fruitycake. Before we start Monday’s adventure, I have an important piece of business to bark about. The full version of today’s blog AND our audio blog are only on Patreon. For just $5 a month, you get special content from us each weekday—more stories, more behind-the-scenes moments, more adventures from this mountain place and, obviously, more of me. Your Patreon membership also directly helps 2 Traveling Dogs keep going and continue our work for shelter animals and the This Is…Me project.
So if you’ve been reading along with us, laughing with us, crying with us and wondering what exactly I’m going to get Girl Person into next, this is the perfect time to join us on Patreon. Mondays are better when someone reads you a story. Especially when one of the readers has paws.
Join us here:
www.patreon.com/2travelingdogsrescue
Now, on with Monday’s story. I happen to be the star of this one. Again.
She Knew I Was A Star and Now She’s A Star
This is Fruitycake. A man stopped me on a mountain in this Italy place the other day and informed Girl Person of something Aunt Lin already knew.
Girl Person smiled.
A real smile.
And almost immediately, I thought about Aunt Lin because she would have loved this. She would have laughed. She probably would have reminded Girl Person that she had been saying it all along. Aunt Lin saw something in us. She saw something in me. She saw something in 2 Traveling Dogs. When Girl Person doubted herself, Aunt Lin reminded her why we had to keep going. When Digby died and then Brickle died and it felt impossible to imagine continuing this story without them, Aunt Lin was one of the people telling her that the story was not finished.
She knew I was a star.
And now she’s a star.
I like thinking about it that way.
Because losing Aunt Lin has been hard, but it has also brought every other loss rushing back through the door. Grief apparently does not understand the concept of arriving alone. It brought Brickle. It brought Digby. It brought every goodbye and every question Girl Person thought she had already worked through. Could she have said more to Aunt Lin? Should she have known she was sick? Could she have done something? Did she do enough for Brickle? Did she do enough for Digby?
Persons do this strange thing after someone dies where they suddenly believe they were supposed to have known things they could not have known. They replay conversations looking for clues. They revisit decisions with information they only have now. They convince themselves that if they think about the past long enough, perhaps they can find a different ending.
But there is no different ending hiding back there.
There is only love.
And maybe that is what Aunt Lin understood about us better than we sometimes understood ourselves. She wasn’t waiting for everything to be perfect before she believed in what we were doing. She saw the potential while we were still figuring it out. She believed in 2 Traveling Dogs when Girl Person was tired. She believed there were more animals to help after Digby and Brickle were gone. She believed this little rescue dog named Fruitycake had a story worth telling. She believed there was more ahead. I’m here because she believed in me before she knew me.
Then, just days after losing her, a stranger stopped us on a mountain because he knew who I was. Tell me Aunt Lin wouldn’t have enjoyed that.
Maybe that man had absolutely no idea what his stopping us meant. To him, it was probably just, “Hey, I know that dog from the internet.” But to Girl Person, it was a reminder at exactly the moment she needed one. Aunt Lin was right.
Not simply about me being exceptionally handsome and destined for greatness, although obviously she demonstrated excellent judgment there. She was right that this mattered. Fifteen years of telling stories mattered. Digby mattered. Brickle mattered. I matter. Every shelter dog we have tried to make visible mattered. Every person who stopped scrolling for a minute and cared mattered. Every ridiculous blog, every mile, every rescue story and every time we wondered whether anyone was still listening mattered. Because somebody was listening.
He found us on a mountain.
That moment reminded Girl Person that while grief keeps asking us to look backward, life keeps happening right in front of us. There are still people we haven’t met. There are trails we haven’t walked. There are shelter dogs whose names we don’t even know yet. There are ideas we haven’t had. There are ridiculous things I haven’t done. There are people who will recognize me whom I will graciously allow to photograph me. There is still potential. I’ll bark this all day long.
That feels especially important this week because we have an offer on this rustico place, and within the next couple of weeks we should know what happens next. Fall is arriving quickly on the mountain. The rain and cold are coming. There are decisions ahead of us, and there are plenty of reasons to be afraid. We could stay frozen between grief over what we have lost and fear over what we might lose next.
But I don’t think Aunt Lin would want that. She saw what could be next.
Today’s affirmation for September 28 says: Changing Your Beliefs Is Okay When Life Has Taught You The Truth. “Changing my beliefs is okay when life has taught me the truth. Growth sometimes means admitting that I understand something differently now. I will not be ashamed of learning. A changed mind can be evidence of an awakened heart.”
Girl Person used to believe that holding on was always the brave thing. Life has taught us something different. Sometimes holding on is brave. Sometimes letting go is brave. Sometimes admitting that the dream needs to change is the bravest thing you can do. Say today’s affirmation with me!
Changing your mind about a dream does not mean the dream was wrong. Leaving a place does not mean you didn’t love it. Deciding something no longer works does not erase the years when it did. And moving forward after losing someone does not mean you are leaving them behind.
Brickle is coming.
Digby is coming.
And Aunt Lin is absolutely coming.
She has probably already packed snacks.
Maybe that is why the internet-star moment happened when it did. We needed something to pull our eyes away from everything that had ended and point them toward everything that still might begin. We needed a stranger on a mountain to remind us of what Aunt Lin already knew.
There is more to this story.
There is more potential in 2 Traveling Dogs. There is more potential in This Is…Me. There are more real shelter dogs who deserve to be seen, believed and rescued. There are more stories to tell. There is more life to live.
And there is more Fruitycake.
Quite frankly, the world should prepare itself.
So this week, we are going to try to look for what Aunt Lin saw. Not only what we have lost, but what is still possible. We can miss her and laugh. We can remember Brickle and Digby while making new memories with me. We can love this rustico place and still be ready to leave it. We can be scared about what happens next and still walk toward it. We can cry in the morning and eat pizza at night, which I believe is a very sophisticated grief-management strategy that should be studied extensively.
We do not know where we will be a month from now. We don’t have to. We only have to keep walking.
Because somewhere along the trail there may be a person we haven’t met yet, an animal we haven’t helped yet, an opportunity we cannot see yet or a reminder that arrives exactly when we need it. Aunt Lin believed there was more ahead for us.
She knew I was a star.
And now, when we look up, she’s the star.
So we are going to keep going and try very hard to become everything she already believed we could be.
Although in my particular case, I think I have clearly arrived.
Fruitycake
P.S. We really need your help getting ready for what comes next. TODAY is supply day! Fall is here on the mountain, the rain and cold are coming quickly, and we don’t even have some of the basics right now, including warm clothes and everyday necessities. With an offer on the rustico and hopefully an answer within the next couple of weeks, we need to prepare now so that if this door opens, we can walk through it.
Necessities: www.tinyurl.com/2tdnecessities
Venmo: travelingdogs2
Patreon: www.patreon.com/2travelingdogsrescue
We aren’t asking for help to stay stuck. We are asking for help to move forward, continue 2 Traveling Dogs and build This Is…Me so that more real shelter dogs can be seen, believed and rescued. Aunt Lin believed in what we could become. We would very much like to prove our star right.
And judging by recent events, you may want to contribute before my appearance fees become completely unreasonable. ❤️
