Cheap Hotel

Only an hour from home we get a cheap hotel room. My mistress insists on leaving the toilet seat up. She farts and snores all night long. Subtle twitches and whimpers indicate good dreams. I toss and turn as the the wall mounted heater turns on and off, on and off. As blackness turns to grey the thump of a tail indicates it’s time to get up.

Rubbing sleep from my eyes we prepare for another day. Curled in a ball, on a pile of sleeping bags, the other dog stirs, unfazed that he was not offered a space on the king bed. Headed to a nearby field, hands stuffed in my jacket pockets, we walk past diesel trucks warming up in the pre dawn. A quick pee followed by breakfast and we are scraping the frost off our own truck.

As the truck warms, collars are pulled off the charger, boots are laced up, and a final sweep of the room is completed to make sure we don’t leave anything behind. Just after first light we are headed through a blanket of ground fog. It is the last day of the season. As a team we embark on one more day in the hills.