Weekend Adventures and Thoughts about Dogs

Alan and I headed to Ebina today in search of a few things: some furry boots for me and some everyday gloves for him. Also, we wanted to stick our head in at the pet store and glimpse the adorable puppies. We miss our dogs terribly.

After the trek to the train station, we rode just a few quick stops to Ebina and began our quest. The boots were easy, we had spotted the shoe store last time we had visited and knew right where to go.

The gloves on the other hand were another story. We searched store after store for the perfect pair of gloves, finding nothing but the puffy gloves for serious winter weather. Also, most everything was not large enough for Alan's hands, looking funny trying to stuff them into the gloves made for the nationals smaller hands. As we meandered the outdoor mall, we saw a flea market type affair taking place on the bottom floor, many people covering the ground offering their goods. As we walked we saw everything from clothing to figurines to dinnerware to jewelry.

Finally we stopped at the pet shop. It was much more crowded than our previous visit but then again, today was Saturday. We saw the popular mini dachshunds, poodles, and maltese. We oo'd and aww'd over the puppies, lingering by the ones who showed interest in us and would follow our fingers across the Plexiglas. Then, our hearts nearly stopped. There was a small female Chihuahua puppy, marked in black and tan, who looked exactly like Roscoe, our rescued male Chihuahua left with good friends so he would not have to suffer the quarantine process of moving to Japan. As we teared up, we moved on because we knew if we lingered, there would be no way we could leave that puppy.

One day, when we leave Japan for our next tour of duty, we will have a puppy again, and we cannot wait for that day. Our dogs became our family and were very difficult to leave behind. However, we knew they would not go through the process of flying from the States to Japan then through the quarantine process well. Thankfully, we have some of the best friends ever, who took in our furry family members and are caring for them with as much heart as we did.