Notes from Maine - 2021/02/27

A strange thing happened to me last week. 

The story really begins about thirty years ago. 

I lived down in Virginia, and a friend told me about puppies. They turned out to be German Shepherds. When I went to see them, I found out they were black German Shepherds. That’s the day I got Duke, and he was my closest friend for thirteen years. Everyone loved Duke. He wasn’t just smart, he was thoughtful. When I lost Duke, I shifted towards dogs that were big, lovable, and… I mean no disrespect to English Mastiffs, but… lazy. 

Working on a book, I started thinking about German Shepherds. The story I’m working on features one that I loosely based on Duke. I began to wonder if Duke was an anomaly, or if other German Shepherds were as interesting as he was. 

That’s when the strange thing happened. Just casually searching around for information on the breed, I saw that someone the next town over had puppies. When I called the guy, it turned out they had black German Shepherds, ready to go home the next day. I asked for the address so I could go look. It turned out the puppies were on the same road that I live on, just a few miles away.

So, for the first time in a decade, I’m experiencing the joy and effort of caring for a puppy. If he weren’t so cute, it would be a pain. The new puppy is Albert, and my friend Finn is a great older brother to him. I can’t wait until summer, when Finn and Albert can play outside in the grass. Maybe Albert will love the sprinkler as much as Finn does. Maybe by then I’ll be able to sleep through the night again. Yesterday, we made it until 5am. Today, we weren’t so lucky.

In other exciting news, if you have the DIY Network, you can see Finn in about a month. On Monday, March 29 8pm DST, Finn will be on the show Maine Cabin Masters. I’ll be on there too, but I think Finn was the real target of their focus whenever the cameras were on.