My Two Writing Teachers colleagues and I are hosting the 16th Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge, in which teachers from around the world participate by posting a story per day.
This year, the SOLSC gives me a chance to record memories of our little dog, Indie, who died in January. I want to write these down while they are still fresh, so that my family and I can read them later and remember not only Indie, but little slices of life across the years.
Indie was a very good boy on his leash. We never really had to train him. He was the kind of dog who you could loosely hang the leash around your wrist, leisurely walking along with him just walking along next to you. For as long as he was alive, I always loved that about him. (My childhood dog would tug and pull us along on his leash, jerking us to try and escape).
However, when Indie was off his leash he was not such a good boy at all. For all the years we lived in Brooklyn he never escaped — minus that one time in McCarren Park when he simply walked away with his leash dragging while I was distracted—changing a diaper. He walked right back, thank god.
When we moved to Vermont, we took him to my in-laws house all the time. They live on a dirt road, without a lot of houses nearby, and plenty of space for a dog to run. Whenever we were there, Indie would jump out of the car and run free, his little ears flapping in the wind. He could fly.
Occasionally, if I was skiing in the backcountry, in places where dogs were allowed, I would bring him along. The conditions had to be just right - he was too little for deep snow. But if the trail was a little bit skied out (smooshed or scraped by previous skiers), then it was perfect for little Indie to run along with me.
In particular, he loved coming to a peak named Dewey with me. On the downhill, I always worried that I was skiing too fast for him to keep up, but everytime I looked over my shoulder, he was just behind me. He ran so fast his little legs became a blur, his tongue hanging out, leaping over obstacles. He achieved lift off.