The Boys on the Lam

12/03/2021

We have a condo in The Grand Condominiums in the Edgewater district in Miami, Florida. I have the good fortune to be able to spend summers in beautiful Lancaster County, Pennsylvania and winters in handicap-friendly Miami. As anyone suffering from ALS knows, cold weather is not our friend. This arrangement has undoubtedly contributed to my sense of wellbeing and, I believe, extended my life. I know how lucky I am.

We have two dogs. They are brothers one litter apart. The breed is a Mi-Ki. It is a new breed composed of Maltese, Papillion, Japanese Chin, and Yorkshire Terrier. They have been purebred since 1993. We love the breed and call them our BOYS. They can be rascals too, as the following example shows.

• Diane was at a Rotary function. 

• Around 19:30, I was heading out to order food at Tony Chans, a great Chinese restaurant in our building. As I opened the door, a visitor was knocking on my neighbor’s door. The boys left the condo and started barking at the visitor. 

• Over the next 15 minutes, I tried to coax them back in, to no avail. They were intermittently having a bark fest and wrestling in the hallway. Then they headed to the elevators. I followed them. 

• There was a Muslim family leaving with suitcases. I tried to ask the father to pick up my dogs and put them in my lap. He didn’t understand but his ~13 year old daughter did. As she was moving to help me, the elevator door opened, the boys got in and sat down, the elevator door closed, and they were gone. Gulp:)

• I sent Diane the following text. “I have a problem. The boys got out of the condo. I couldn’t get them back. An elevator door opened, and they got on without me. I don’t know where they are. Please call the front desk for me.”

• I waited for another resident to come help me with the elevator as I can’t do it by myself. It seemed like forever until someone came but probably was 10 minutes. I was pretty sure they didn’t get off above floor 10 because I would have heard them barking. The only floors below 10 are the parking levels and the lobby. 

• I went to the front desk and asked about the boys. One of the security guards had me follow him to a locked room in the mailroom. He came out with a boy under each arm. When they saw me Finley’s tail wagged, and Westley’s quivered at the tip. 

• He was going to escort me back up to the condo but when we got to the front desk we ran into Diane and her Rotary friends. 

• The boys were not traumatized in the least. Not sure that the same can be said about me.