The day Bea moved in with us

Three years ago

It was July 12th 2021 when it finally happened. This was 3 years ago to the day. So I'm seizing this opportunity to just celebrate this magical day with you. The day Bea moved in with us. And what better way than to tell you a couple of my memories of that day.

Monday

It was a Monday. I was in the middle of a show that I did. Maddy was really busy with a whole bunch of tasks. We were living in Steyr, Upper Austria at that time. We had one car, that we both used. We ate so much pasta during that time. And we were madly in love. Both with each other and this wonderful, horrible apartment we were renting. So live was actually wild and good. Then this Monday came along. We took the entire day off and drove out to Styria, about 2,5 hours. I remember driving with hearts filled to the brim with excitement and love. No better way to enhance this mood than to listen to Irish ballads. So we did and thoght ourselves to be in Ireland, for some reason. The mind goes to strange places, when the heart's leaping.

Styria

We had been at Bea's birthplace before, we knew the humans, the dogs, and the place. But this time was quite different. There had been nine dogs of various sizes the last time we had been there. And now there were only three. One of them tiny, magic Bea. And as the dogs greeted us with their howls, we almost couldn't breathe anymore. But we were as polite as we could be. Talked and joked, strengthened our bond with Monika even. And then we took Bea, put her in her transport crate in the backseat and drove home.

Malfunction

Or so we thought. Our wonderful car had a totally different plan that day and decided to just stop working properly. I could drive 100 km/h no problem. But going past that mark would shut the engine down and let me go only about 80 km/h max. Only thing I could do was restart the car. Try not to go faster than 100 km/h. Fail. And stop, start and rinse and repeat. The 2,5 hour drive took us about 5 hours or more. It was confusing, irrtiating and the best drive of my life.

Home

We made a couple of stops, as you can imagine. And these gave us a rough idea about what was going to happen. But we were in a sort of trance. We talked, but cannot recall what about. We listened to music, I think, but am not sure. We let Bea take a couple of steps every now and then. And it felt eerie. And then we finally reached Steyr, found a parking spot, brought Bea home and now I can remember everything clear as day. Maybe because we have a video, but even without it...it's like it happened yesterday. I carried Bea. Maddy was in the apartment already. We had prepared everything (or so we thought). And I have Bea in my arms, I take the step and we are three.

Tears

Immediately after I set Bea down and watched her sniff, run and tumble I started crying. Hard. And so did Maddy. We were sitting on the mattress I had bought for friends to stay at ours and now it was for a dog. A dog that would stay with us. For weeks, months, years. What were we thinking? So stupid. An actor with a dog? A dog? I realized the severity of the situation. The load. The truth. By now I was lying on this mattress and Maddy was holding my hand. Sniffing and sobbing. And then this crazy decision stumbles our way, crawls awkwardly up my leg, my stomach and lies on my chest, her little nose buried between my wet cheek and my shoulder. And she sighs ever so softly before she falls asleep.

Three years ago

She never did that again. But once was enough to show me that everything was going to be alright. And then some. I still get watery eyes telling this story, I could weep away now as I am writing, and Bea is sleeping next to me on an improvised bed I made. It's her first ever dog bed that I put on two chairs next to each other, so she can be closer to me while I work on the computer. She loves it. And I love her.

PS

I decided not to use pictures for this post, because I want you to have your own images, your own impressions. I hope this gives you a stronger connection to our story. Thank you for reading and have a great day!

Ok ok...here is one pic:

Dorky glasses me and tiny Bea with her first collar. Notice the grey mattress.