7-14-12: Home for Summer

The door of my room creaked as I walked past it today, and for a quick, exciting, gut-wrenching moment, I thought it was Tiger's scratchy little meow. Not consciously, just in my heart and stomach, I knew it was him. I was instantly transformed into to high school Jen, and the world around me seemed utterly weird - why was I in Mommy and Daddy's room? What had happened to it? The colors were all wrong, and the furniture was weird, and whose clothes were on the floor? Where was Tiger? And who was this little dog at my heel? Where was I going again, what was I doing? Oh, homework, right... For college... For grad school... That's my parent's beagle, Savannah, down there, and I'm going to the bathroom after having started a load of laundry. Graciously back to reality, relieved, but achingly conscious of a little scratchy-voiced, stripey-fuzz-butt-shaped vacancy in my life. I love you, Tiger. Thank you for the vivid reminder.