Truman loves when people come visit the house. Only two came on July 4. There have not been many visitors since COVID. We are all waiting for normal to come back, but normal is an ethereal concept that changes with each passing instant. Normal is a conundrum. Normal has never changed because it is always changing. We have to adapt.
Truman’s best buddy is Sunny, a fourteen-year-old Labrador. Sunny cannot keep up with Truman, even though she tries. It’s sad to see her struggle to be a coequal playmate.
They love to swim together. Sunny taught Truman to be bold in the water. A few short years ago, Sunny would spend hours dropping a “sinking toy” into the pool and diving to the bottom to retrieve it. Floating toys bored her. Her cataracts are so bad now she can’t see the bottom anymore, besides her weak muscles and tired arthritic legs can’t propel her down. Now normal is that Sunny can only swim one small circle before she has to rest and catch her breath.
Normal for Truman used to be visiting the behavioral health hospital and being surrounded by new friends who rubbed his belly, and scratched his neck. How can he understand why he isn’t allow to do that anymore? Does he try to understand? How will he adapt when his buddy, Sunny trots over the rainbow bridge and leaves him to cope with the new normal that is left?
Truman will adapt. There is no waiting for the new normal. The new normal morphs as every second of time passes by.
Truman Blue Mysteries 