MarLa Sink Druzgal

Today starts my official dog-sitting/house-sitting duties here in southern California. For the sake of privacy, I won’t use photos of the dog, the house or use real names.

After I dropped his owners at the airport this morning, I drove back to their beautiful house, thinking how strange it is to house-sit for people I’ve never met. Stranger still, I imagine, for them to sift through dozens of applications to choose a person to be responsible for the care of their home and life of their pet.

But we managed to make a good match, and even our personalities are compatible.

I arrived yesterday and went over the routine and care of their beautiful dog, who I will call here “the King.” We walked a couple of parks and went over his medicine and food, his likes and personality.

Today the King an I had our first alone-time together. To work on bonding, I took him for a midday walk to Laguna Niguel Regional Park.

We watched carefully for rattlesnakes, as instructed by his owners. We (thankfully) didn’t see any, but enjoyed startling a few rabbits and greeting a labrador retriever and two little girls on scooters enjoying the paved areas.

I was tempted to try the fitness spot, but the King looked to be getting a little hot.

I thought for a moment he might make a jump for the little creek running through the park but it turned out he was curious about a nearby bird.

I’m looking forward to my adventures with the King, as well as my solo adventures during his naptime. But most importantly I’m eager to finish this manuscript free of the crazy distractions of life at home.

Speaking of home, it’s funny that as I’m here, sitting the house and dog of strangers, Kurt is just finishing his staycation at our own home, before moving into our rental place in Ohio.

As he moves there, our friend moves into our home to house-sit and cat-sit until I return home in September. She enjoys writing in our country setting, so it’s a win-win-win for everyone involved, and it’s just crazy when life works out that way sometimes.

I hope to report to you by the end of my time here in California, that this project is finally as revised and complete as I can make it.

Until then, I hope you enjoy my continued blogging from the west coast.

Love, Marla