We received word last night that Volt has his ticket to ride the Rolling Rescue bus on Friday June 24th. Now we begin that bittersweet process of saying goodbye and congratulating him on moving to the next step toward finding a forever home of his own.

Volt has been with us since January, six months is a longer time than normal. He has come to think of this as his home and us as his family. But we know that Meryl will welcome him into hers and ease his transition. Hopefully he will find a permanent home quickly. He’s a really good boy and deserves that.

When I told him he was going to Pennsylvania on The Bus, he said, “WHAT!? I don’t want to go there … I saw a movie and that’s where vampires live! I don’t want to live with vampires, they’re even worse than mosquitoes.”

“Vampires? No, no, no: that’s TRANSylvania. That’s a whole different place. You’re headed for Pennsylvania — that’s where they make pencils, not vampires.”

“Oh! That’s different then. Will I like it there?”

“You’ll love it. It’s just like here except different. You will be living in a house and will have other dogs to hang with and Meryl will treat you well and help you find a forever family of your very own.”

“Thinking about leaving you and Blondie and Doug and Marie makes me sad.”

“Yeah … it makes us sad too. But you deserve to have a forever home of your very own. We can’t adopt every dog we fall in love with. We just can’t.”

Then we lay down and took a nap together so we wouldn’t cry. It isn’t becoming for Guardians of the Realm to cry.