Spring on the western slope doesn’t arrive with much fanfare...it doesn’t announce itself in a flurry of blooms and bursts of color... It just… loosens. The air gets softer. The mornings lighten a little earlier. The cold starts stepping back, one degree at a time.
By April, we’d settled into a rhythm with Rangely. I knew which mornings belonged to the wind. I knew when the snowplows would rumble through town. I knew which patches of ice tried to trick me. And I knew the shape of each day walking with Dougie — what he liked, where he sniffed, where he pretended not to hear me when he wanted to stay just a little longer.
But spring also carried a different weight. Quiet. Heavy. Familiar. I’d been trying not to look at it directly, but it was there. You can feel it long before you say it out loud.
Dougie was slowing down.
And I kept telling myself the same thing:
He’ll tell you when it’s time.
That voice had been with me for months. I just didn’t want to hear it yet.
On April 17, the morning felt too good to ignore. Sunny. Sixty-five degrees. The kind of day that tricks you into thinking everything might be fine for a little while longer.
So I loaded Dougie into V2, grabbed a couple waters, and pointed the truck downriver. Further than we had gone before. I wasn’t looking for anything specific. Just… a different place to hang out a bit.
The road eventually narrowed until it ended at a private ranch. Left or right. Two choices. We turned left.
We stepped out into air that was cool enough to wake you up but warm enough to make you stay still for a moment. The river moved steady beside us. Not rushing. Not crawling. Just doing what rivers do.
I lifted Dougie down from the truck, and something in him shifted. Not physically. Not dramatically. Just… quietly. He looked around slower. He took in the air like he was trying to memorize it. And that’s when the voice came back.
He’ll tell you when it’s time…
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Podcast written and recorded by Dougie, Billie, and Craig.
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