🐾 A NOTE FROM FRUITYCAKE BEFORE WE BEGIN…
My brother Brickle brought us all the way to this Italy place, and now I’m trying to make sure everything he started keeps going! Every weekday, Girl Person and I share our lives, our lessons, our rescue work and the stories that remind us why we do all of this. We also make an audio version of the blog so you can listen along wherever your day takes you.
For just $5 a month, you can join our Patreon family and help make this daily blog and audio possible. Your support helps us continue our rescue mission, including Fruitycake’s Pawcast and This Is…Me, while we prepare for the next chapter Brickle helped make possible. We need you with us now more than ever, and I promise there are still plenty of stories left to tell!
❤️ Join our Patreon family for $5 a month and keep the stories going!
What If Brickle Brought Them Here For A Reason That Had Nothing To Do With Staying Forever?
This is Fruitycake. There is someone Girl Person keeps coming back to whenever she wonders how we got here and where we are supposed to go next.
My brother, Peanut Butter Brickle.
I didn’t get to know Brickle for as many years as my persons did, but the years we spent together went way beyond years. Wow, our time in the Cotswolds of England made so many memories that will alone last forever.
But stories, many including me, are part of our everyday conversations. And even though I didn’t know Digby Pancake, Brickle told me all about him too. And he guides me too. Both of their names come up when we walk the paths around Under The Crow, when we talk about rescue dogs and when Girl Person needs to remember why she started doing all of this in the first place.
Brickle was a senior rescue dog who refused to let anyone decide that his best years were behind him. He traveled across America with me by his side and my persons. He helped them visit animal rescues and show people that older dogs still had adventures to live, things to learn and love to give. He helped prove that senior dogs could do extraordinary things when someone gave them the opportunity. And then, when many people might have expected him to settle down and spend his remaining years doing very little, he helped bring this family all the way to this Italy place.
Think about that for a moment.
A senior rescue dog helped lead two people and me across an ocean to an old house on a mountain in this Portofino place. There were ancient mills, olive trees, stone terraces, wild animals and paths that required more determination than some people have before breakfast. And Brickle belonged here. He explored. He enjoyed his days. He continued showing everyone that an older dog still had so much life to live. And that he wanted us to get to our next steps. Our next chapters. It is amazing, isn’t it?
Sometimes people look at a senior dog in a shelter and see how many years that dog has already lived. Brickle taught people to think about how much life that dog might still have ahead. Although a dog doesn’t have to climb a mountain or travel to another country to prove that, you know Brickle had to outdo everyone!
Brickle did climb mountains. And he changed the direction of my persons’ lives.
For a long time, Girl Person thought that the reason Brickle brought them here was so they could stay. They bought Under The Crow with dreams of restoring the old buildings, taking care of the land and making this their forever home. They worked incredibly hard. They carried supplies up the mountain, learned how to live with less, almost nothing, and found beauty in places that most people would walk right past. They imagined growing old here, surrounded by everything they had worked to create.
And now we are preparing to leave.
I know that has been difficult for Girl Person to accept. Maybe for you too. She has wondered whether leaving means they failed at something. She has looked around at all the work still to be done and thought about the plans that will never happen the way she imagined.
But I have a question.
What if Brickle brought them here for a reason that had nothing to do with staying forever?
What if this house was simply another stop along the way to something bigger?
Because look at everything that happened here. My persons learned how to keep going when things were difficult. They learned how much they could accomplish together. They learned about living in another country, caring for a place with a long history and finding happiness in small things. They learned that dreams can change without becoming meaningless. In fact, they may become more meaningful!
They also learned what they wanted to do next.
Brickle helped them understand that their purpose was never really about a particular house, state or country. It was about rescue dogs. It was about showing people what animals are capable of when someone believes in them. It was about giving dogs who had been overlooked the chance to become somebody’s entire world.
Before Brickle, there was my brother Digby Pancake, who helped begin this remarkable journey. Digby taught my persons lessons they still carry with them. Brickle took those lessons across America and eventually across the ocean. And now, apparently, I am the dog in charge of the next part.
I would like to formally announce that I accept this position.
I think Brickle would understand what we are trying to do. He knew that being rescued was only the beginning of his story. He knew there were always more places to explore and more people to meet. And I believe he would want us to keep finding ways to help the dogs who are still waiting for their own stories to begin.
There is something else I want Girl Person to remember.
Brickle is staying here.
His resting place at Under The Crow will be preserved by the people who are hoping to become the new caretakers of this property. That means so much to my persons. But I don’t want Girl Person to think that leaving this mountain means leaving Brickle behind. He is in the work we do. He is in every senior dog we encourage someone to adopt. He is in every new idea that begins with the question, “How can we help more animals?”
He is part of the reason I have the life I do.
And now, when Girl Person starts worrying about paperwork and dates and everything that could possibly go wrong, I want her to remember the dog who brought us here in the first place. Brickle didn’t know how every part of his adventure would turn out. He simply kept living it. He trusted his persons, enjoyed what was in front of him and made the most of the opportunities he was given.
Maybe we can learn to do a little more of that.
This week, we are going to keep preparing for our next chapter. Girl Person will work on the details. Boy Person will work on the practical things. I will supervise, which is a demanding position requiring several naps. We will do what we can today so that when the paperwork is finished, whether that happens on the date we hope or a little later, we will be ready to move forward.
Because believing things will work out should change what we do today.
And because Brickle didn’t bring us all this way just so we could say we once lived in a beautiful old house in Italy.
He brought us here to learn. To grow. To understand that even the biggest dreams can become the beginning of different ones. To show the world that a senior rescue dog could do anything. And perhaps to prepare my persons for the work they still have ahead of them.
The house may not have become our forever home. But what we learned here will travel with us for the rest of our lives.
And I have a feeling that somewhere in the world, there is an old shelter dog who is going to get another chance because Peanut Butter Brickle once got his.
If that happens, then this chapter was worth every difficult day.
Daily Affirmation: I Will Prepare For The Good I Believe Is Coming.
Follow in your November Workbook
Today, I will take the next step toward what I hope will happen instead of allowing uncertainty to keep me standing still. I can make plans, do the work and remain flexible when circumstances change. A delay does not mean my purpose has disappeared. I will remember what brought me this far and trust that the lessons I have learned can help me move forward.
I have been watching my persons do something very interesting lately. They are preparing for things to work out while simultaneously worrying that they won’t. I believe this is a very common human activity. Girl Person will spend an hour making plans for our next chapter and then spend another hour wondering whether those plans will actually happen. Boy Person will look at paperwork, make telephone calls and explain what needs to happen next. And I will sit nearby wondering whether anyone has remembered that I need dinner regardless of what happens with the paperwork. Someone in this family has to remain focused on the essentials.
We have had some delays with the paperwork for selling Under The Crow. There are things that need to be completed, questions that need answers and people who need to do their parts. Our hoped-for closing date may move by a few days. Maybe more. Girl Person has been trying very hard not to allow every delay to become an entire disaster in her imagination. She told Boy Person that we need to keep preparing as though everything is going to work out. Because if it does, we need to be ready. And if it takes a few extra days, we will still be ready. I think this is a very good plan, especially since I have already started preparing myself emotionally for new places to sniff.
We have things to do in the meantime and we are working harder than ever!!! I have already begun my responsibilities with Fruitycake’s Pawcast, which is a podcast for dogs, by a dog. We want dogs in shelters to hear something positive every day. We want people to understand animals better and appreciate the wonderful individuals they are. And through our This Is…Me project, we are helping real shelter dogs tell their stories so that people can see who they are instead of scrolling past another photograph.
These projects may look different from the rescue adventures Brickle had, but they come from the same place.
A dog who was given a chance and used that chance to change lives.
You may be in the midst of changes too. Maybe not the same as us. But I bet if you think about Brickle and all he did to get us here, you can also use some of that strength to help you. He would want that. He would also want you to gush over him and give him credit. I suspect you’ll do that. It’s not only part of my job to be the face of rescue now, but to also work towards never forgetting that Brickle and Digby too started it all. I won’t let their work go to waste or their memories.
What if Brickle brought them here for a reason that had nothing to do with staying forever?
There is no IF. Let’s get on with this show.
Fruitycake 🐾
P.S. FROM FRUITYCAKE:
If you believe in what Brickle started, what Digby helped build and what I am now trying to carry forward, we need your help. Our rescue work, daily blog, Pawcast and This Is…Me project depend on people who believe that rescue dogs deserve to be seen, heard and loved. We are also preparing for the expenses of our next chapter, including my veterinary paperwork and travel preparations.
You can help by joining our Patreon for $5 a month, supporting our everyday necessities or contributing to my preparations to leave Italy.
❤️ Join our Patreon family for $5 a month
🐾 Help with our everyday necessities
❤️ Help Fruitycake get ready to leave Italy
Venmo: @travelingdogs2
Zelle: rachael@2travelingdogs.com
Thank you for helping us continue a mission that began with dogs who changed everything. We still have so many dogs to help.
Make Rescues The Breed Of Choice. ❤️🐾
