10/23/2025
In 2019, I remember driving hour upon hour with Auggie, trying to get to this very spot on Cape Breton where I'm writing this now. We never made it in 2019 because of hurricane Dorian.
He'd nuzzle my elbow with his cold wet nose only if he needed to pee or poop. We were running low on fuel and no one had any. Cape Breton Island was an absolute wreck.
We drove to Sydney in a Hail Mary. After burning literal fumes, we coasted into a gas station with a generator and gladly paid the excessive markup for about 22 gallons of 93 octane. It was all that was left.
We'd been driving for over 30 hours at that point. Never a peep from Auggie.
We headed out, back to Maine. There were power lines all over the roads. Even the freeways. National Guard trucks were everywhere. Some roads were flooded and blocked and we had to backtrack. No hotels/motels were open. We inched our way back. I had to pull over and piss in the middle of Nowhere New Brunswick.
The power was out everywhere and the storm clouds were gone. There was no wind. There was no moon. There wasn't even any traffic. I let Auggie out to pee with me.
I looked up at those silent, brilliant stars. I walked into the gravel turnoff and sat down on an old stump. Aug snuggled into my lap.
We sat next to each other in that beautiful, uninterrupted silence, that blackness, that star-sprinkled nothingness for Dog knows how long.
When my ass got soaked from the stump, I got back in the truck.
And Auggie followed.
I will never forget that moment with that dog.
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