Second Driveway (click all of these for bigger.)

Because he’s only eleven and has eleven times our energy, Rikki gets to go for a walk every night. We wait till the gun nuts are in bed because he looks exactly, completely, unbelievably like a deer.

When those ears pop up, you can hear every Elmer Fudd in the county cock his rifle. So we are careful.

So we march past the second driveway up top and barely even pause at our homestead’s cricket green.

Rikki will pee by the bamboos to the right (where the cobras are), but then he wants to go exploring.

We walk past the mysterious wood along the road.

Pretty sure Harry Potter’s in there. Or at least his owl is.

And then we arrive at the gates of Mordor.

Where the shadows lie.

And then, panting slightly, both of us, because even I am eleven in dog years, we turn around and go back home in our magical elven cloaks, which are proof against all the pickup truck headlights in the world.

That was arduous, sahib. Tikki-Tik-Tik-Tikki Tavi.

After which we have a cookie, and curl up for a good night’s sleep.