Our puppies were not the least bit pleased with us this morning. All went well for them, just like a perfectly normal routine morning. We all enjoyed breakfast and nothing caused them to believe they were on the verge of being abandoned to themselves until the very moment of our departure. If that old platitude of seeing someone's face fall in astonishment could be used to describe the realization that dawned on Jackie and Jillie, then indeed their little faces fell in apprehension and disbelief. 

You'd think separation anxiety wouldn't be an issue when there are two of them; companions, brother and sister, and you'd be wrong. It was time for us to drive to the west end of the city where we were assigned a date and a time for our second anti-COVID vaccination. Evidently, nothing could be found in our own area, everything all booked  up, so the west end it would be. A long drive, as it happens, on a day moving toward sweltering.

In the large parking lot where we were instructed to wait in the car adjacent to the entrance we had been assigned to, for the two-day clinic taking place at a sports arena, a young Muslim couple was parked beside us. With them, four small children for whom they had no one to take their care, so they took them with, the parents awaiting their first shots. The children were a bit of a distraction, excited to be out and eager to have an adventure. Evidently when they called for an appointment they were offered spaces in the east end of the city, where we live.

Once a loudspeaker announced our assigned time, inviting us to enter at the assigned gate, we were escorted to a large functional and unbeautiful chamber. The noise in that chamber was deafening; people speaking normally, the sound amplified by acoustics owing much to a large windowless space with a metal ceiling,  and countless people both servicing and being served exchanging information.

Small spaces about six-feet-square apart set up as notional 'rooms' with the aid of plastic curtains and there people waited on chairs for a nurse with her vaccination cart to come along. In our earlier experience tables were set up spaced appropriately distanced from each other, where people were directed to, and at each table was a nurse to administer the dose. The entire process was done and completed in a snap. We were there no longer than ten minutes. This time it was over an hour as we waited our turn. Insufficient numbers of nurses were in attendance and each one assigned to a row of plastic cubicles wherein sat vaccinees.

What a joyful reunion on our return home! We were obviously mourned in our absence, as having gone forever from the lives of Jackie and Jillie. Yips of joy and forever-kisses of undying love lavished upon us. And then we set out for a ravine hike with the two little broken-hearted and miraculously-healed little puppies. By this time it was steaming hot but clouds had rolled in, and we're expecting thunderstorms through the night time hours.

The forest, cool and green, presented us with the shade of its dense, green canopy. We had light burning sensations at the site of the vaccination, that will likely turn into a dull muscular ache by evening, perhaps last a few days and then be gone. There is some stress involved in deviations from our normal routine, and relief that we felt that the second, final shot should spell the end of the pandemic for us personally. Being surrounded by trees in the forest dissipates any residual feelings of unease and discomfort. A leisure pleasure for all of us.

Toward the last one-third of our circuit, we decided to take a freshman-trail, one that didn't exist before last winter when people suffering from lockdown and stay-at-home restraints ordered by the province sought new adventure and relief, forged a new trial. Jackie and Jillie were delighted at this deviation from the norm, and ran ahead exuberantly, the footing just fine for them as we descended, and a little more dicey for ourselves. 

The little tramps refused water offered to them, despite their exertions, but they were pleased to honour us by gobbling up doggy cookies. By the time we arrived back home, however, they looked as though they felt slightly bedraggled, wandering about the garden pathways in the relative cool of the gathering cloud formations overhead.