Operation: Shadow Watch

Before I get into anything… YES, I do realize recently my blog posts have been minimal and erratic. I apologize for that, but the fact of the matter is that I haven’t had much going on lately, or at least nothing that is worthy enough to share with you all. I want to give you only the most entertaining anecdotes of my life, so when the only thing I can find to write about it how I have nothing to write about, I don’t bother wasting your time. However, have no fear! I think I may have a live one here, folks.

Let me begin by bringing you up to speed with some brief background information: I live at the bottom of a dead end hill, and when I was growing up there were woods (actually just a thick grove of trees that we all called ‘the woods’) directly across the street from my house, which always gave us a feeling of real privacy. A few years back someone purchased the land, tore down all the trees and put up a duplex. The residents of my street were very unhappy, and are still a bit sensitive about it to this day (although that’s another story for another time). On the bright side, though, at least we got some good neighbors out of the deal. The newlywed couple on the left side moved out after about two years and we now have a young bachelor who is very friendly, though hardly ever home, and on the right side there is a very nice family of Michelle, her husband Sergio, their young son Jacob, and their dog Shadow. I've had  few conversations with members of the family, but I've never really had any hands on interaction with Shadow, though he is always running around the street with little Jacob.

Just so you can get a visual, the dog in question is half Black Lab and half Great Dane, so you could only imagine the size, and I always joke that there is a black horse running around my street.

Well last week Michelle approached me and told me that she and her family were going to Florida for vacation from the 12^th to the 19^th, and asked if I would have any interest in watching Shadow for them. Naturally I said I would love to, as I’m a big fan of dogs (though I am adamantly a cat-person) and it’s not like walking directly across the street to play with a dog is exactly strenuous work, haha.

Saturday morning I went to meet Shadow (who likes me… at least as far as I could tell) and speak to Michelle so she could give me the rundown for when to feed him, let him out, etc. 

It wasn't until today that I realized, because this is a new experience for me, and as I've been bit short on blog material lately, that starting next week I will begin ‘Operation: Shadow Watch’ documenting the daily events as they unfold. Hopefully you will all stick with me through the journey, and hopefully my efforts to care for this canine behemoth will keep you all sufficiently entertained. Stay tuned for day one which should be coming up probably next Monday the 11th, or if not then definitely next Tuesday, the 12th .