Mackey came to B.O.N.E.S. from a bad situation in central Massachusetts. He was underweight and limped painfully. X-rays revealed a displaced femur fracture in his right hind leg – it was amazing that Mackey could use the leg at all. The options didn't look hopeful, but with help from the B.O.N.E.S. Medical Director, a carefully-structured exercise program, and a lot of TLC, he can now lead a normal life.
As Mackey recovered from his injuries, long-time B.O.N.E.S. adopter John was mourning the loss of his long-time beagle companion, Hudson, whose "Chronicles" were documented here for many years. John was settling into a new job with lots of driving, and Mackey loved to ride... a great match. John and Mackey will both share their viewpoints with us on this page.
I hope you all had a nice Christmas and holiday season. Mackey and I were planning on spending the holidays down in Baltimore but had to come back to Maine to use up some vacation time.
We got to spend a quiet Christmas in Wells with family. It was a pleasant surprise for us all.
It has been a crazy fall with me and Mackey bouncing from job to job for extended periods filling in for various reasons.
The first was a five-week period in Kittery at the shipyard filling in for the onsite driver who retired. We were to be there for a week or two, but they had trouble finding a replacement driver with enough experience to handle the extremely tight conditions on site. After about five weeks, I was finally relieved of duty.
A major complication in that job site is that dogs are not allowed in the high-security area of the base. When I first went down, I loaded up my pickup so that I had a place to stash Mackey whenever I had to go to the secure area.
At the end I had to haul a small tugboat back to Pittsfield which was 14 feet wide. This type of load requires an escort for travel, and we even got a two police car escort off the base. It is tight enough with a legal load, so I was glad to have the extra help getting off base.
One of the bright sides to this gig was the mornings, when I enjoyed my first cup of coffee watching the sun rise and the boats headed out to get their catch for the day. Not a bad way to start the day at work!
This brought us up to Thanksgiving, and after that, we thought we were headed for Baltimore... Wrong! A bridge replacement in Vermont was finishing up, and the trucking that was hired to take the temporary bridge components back to New Jersey fell through, so I got sent up to Vermont for two weeks to run back and forth from Vermont to New Jersey.
This week there is a lot of equipment coming off one of our barges in Brewer, ME coming back to Pittsfield, so it's going to be a busy week.
Then, after many false starts, maybe we can head south and get out of the cold weather!
Greetings from Durham, ME.
John finally fired up his computer and we are finally getting caught up on the action.
It has been busy with a lot of last-minute changes. After that time when everyone dresses weirdly and demands candy, John packed for a long term down in Baltimore, only to have things change. The first was a long time spent down in Kittery at the submarine base. I had to spend a lot of time in the pickup that John hauled down. Seems that there is STILL a section that doesn't allow dogs, so into the Chevy doghouse I went. How can anyone not want me to come and visit? Every time that John got back and got me back into the Kenworth, I was so happy to get back in the sleeper and get comfy!
Then when John was packed again, we headed up to Vermont for a couple of weeks hauling back and forth to New Jersey.
Finally, we made it to Baltimore, only to be brought back to Maine so John could use up some unused vacation time. I got to go to the vet and got all my shots, and maybe a future dental cleaning. Yippee! It was kind of nice to get some recliner time at home.
We got to go down to Wells for Christmas with John's sister, niece, and Lily, the cat. Overall, it was pretty relaxing, except for the occasional hiss and swat from Lily.
The only drawback to Christmas was John showing off his new Christmas clothes and doing his own version of reaching for the stars. I'm sorry that he felt the need to include this picture. At times like this, I wonder if my life really has been better with him...
That about covers it for now.
