Six Days

If I got any more tired, I would be a tire.

Image by Raul Chavelas from Pixabay

But the payoff will be worth it.

In approximately eight hours, I’ll leave my home in Appalachia forever. Part of me is a bit nostalgic; I never hated this house. I could have been happy living in it, under the right circumstances. But the culture here has worn me down. This is a hardscrabble place, teeming with people whose hearts are cold and minds are small. Sure, there are some good folks here. But they are woefully outnumbered. And many of them are suffering at the whims of this community just as I have suffered for the past decade.

People are lining up to scavenge my property for whatever they can find. And that’s okay--they can have anything I don’t take with me. But when I’ve asked for help, mostly I just hear crickets. Red Lane and Lori Salyer have helped. Caitlin Hutchison has taken our last tiny dog to foster until transport at the first of September, and Colleena Owens will not only take that dog to meet the transport, but she and her husband have done other things as well that I won’t mention. Mostly, however, I’ve handled this entire move on my own, from taking the TARC dogs to Molly’s Place to hauling all the heavy crates out for scrap metal, to cleaning and scrubbing to packing and carrying all my things to the car.

Tomorrow at this time, this will all--hopefully--be just a bad memory. I say “hopefully” because I’m not gone yet, and fate could still have a cruel trick up its sleeve. The amount of money that has gone into closing the rescue and hanging on to the few personal dogs that I could is mind blowing. I did have help with that, but it didn’t come from the community that threw these dogs away to begin with. This angers me deeply and demoralizes me completely when it comes to rescue. It will take a long time and a lot of distance for me to heal from the scars this experience has left.

Exactly one week from today I’ll be in Paris. I’ll be in the company of my dearest friends in the world. Maybe then I can relax and rest and eventually realize I’ve escaped, and the next chapter of my life is mine alone to write.

Other Posts in this Series (because this one won't make sense if you haven't read the other ones)

Forty Days
Thirty-Nine Days
Thirty-Eight Days
Thirty-Seven Days
Thirty-Six Days
Thirty-Five Days
Thirty-Three Days
Thirty-Two Days
Thirty-One Days
Thirty Days
Twenty-Seven Days
Twenty-Six Days
Twenty-Five Days
Twenty-Three Days
Twenty Days
Eighteen Days
Seventeen Days
Fifteen Days
Fourteen Days
Twelve Days
Eight Days