My Two Writing Teachers colleagues and I are hosting the 16th Annual March Slice of Life Story Challenge, in which teachers from around the world participate by posting a story per day.

This year, the SOLSC gives me a chance to record memories of our little dog, Indie, who died in January. I want to write these down while they are still fresh, so that my family and I can read them later and remember not only Indie, but little slices of life across the years.  

Indie never liked water. Luckily his smooth wiry coat always stayed clean. His fur was a little raincoat. He was always warm and dry.

His special coat required grooming every 4-6 weeks with a special process called “stripping.” (I tried to do it myself once and it was disastrous - Indie looked like he had mange). When he came home the groomer he looked and felt like a little prince. His fur was short and velvety after a grooming . Over the following weeks the top wirier coat would grow longer and softer making him look like a little Star Wars creature. And then he would get groomed again.

On the occasions when he did get pretty dirty, or if he just started to get stinky we would give him a shower. He just stood there looking miserable while we soaped him up and washed him one leg at a time.

After a shower Indie would slide on his back across the bedroom carpet, like a little snake. Then he would snap up and run. And then stop. And then slide like a snake again. Then he’d run down the stairs and through all the rooms, skittering from rug to rug because the wood floors were too slippery.

He tolerated rivers and kiddie pools too. On really hot days I walked him into the river him to cool off in. I dipped him in a kiddie pool from time to time while I was gardening. He moved his paws in vague swimming motions, as if he were asleep and dreaming about swimming instead of doing it in reality.

Indie didn’t like water, but he was always near whenever we were swimming, or running in a sprinkler, or having a hose-battle, or washing the car. Then again, he was always near.