Basil (Almost) Home Alone

Yesterday we gave a window into what our week in NYC looked like, so today we thought it would only be fair to show the going-ons of Basil's week away from the parents...

It all started out with a sleepover at Granddad's house (Mary's Dad). George loves to get Basil all riled up and then lure him into a sleepy slumber — Basil loves it. Whenever Basil stays with Granddad overnight, we get lots of random iPhone pictures with funny captions like "#17" and "Very Content." We'll let you guess which is which:

After a thorough spoiling, it was time for Basil to spend some time at his favorite daycare, Diamond Dog House, for the remainder of the week. We've talked all about the overnight daycare where Basil stays before (read up on it here), so we'll spare you those details again. Long story short, after searching high and low, we found a place we and Basil love that caters really well to the dogs and one of our favorite perks — they post daily photos of every dog on their Facebook page so all of us adoring parents can scroll through and see what our furry children did that day. It's so funny — when Mary and I are away or even when we just take him there for a few hours during the day, we wait for the daily time the daycare posts the photos so we can try to find Basil.

Here's the roundup of photos we could find that they took and posted of him on Facebook throughout the week:

Monday Basil ran around and basked in the sun. He could care less we were out of town and was enjoying his freedom and exercise.

"Parents, what parents? I am a sun dog."

Tuesday, Basil continued to play in the sun, but grew curious about when his parents might be coming back to get him:

 

"Hey, do you know when my mommy and daddy are coming back? It gets a little dark here at night."

Wednesday there were three (3!) other weims at daycare and Basil went straight back to his carefree way of life:

"I know my way around here pretty well now."

Overnight Wednesday it snowed in Richmond and the daycare staff let all the dogs outside to play in it:

Basil loves playing and running in the snow, but he also likes coming back inside to a warm bed and sometimes a blanket — we think this might be where he began to miss home a little.

Friday it continued to snow in Richmond and it looks like Basil wasn't the only one trying to stay close and keep warm:

 

We're not sure how they got all the dogs to stand and look at the camera like this — it must have been a ball about to get thrown or snack time.

Here's Basil on Saturday morning, looking ready to come home:

"Where are you mom and dad? I've had a great week, but I'm ready for a warm bath and nap by the fireplace."

We picked him up early Saturday afternoon and after that warm bath, he completely sacked out on his bed in the family room in front of the fire with his blanket:

He didn't move from this position for over 8 hours. He didn't get up to go outside and we had to literally call him over to eat dinner from his "recovery slumber" — usually all I have to do is open the cabinet door where we keep his food and he is in there, waggy tail and all.

After a restful Saturday and good night's sleep back at home, Basil is back to his old self:

Missed this big guy and couldn't be happier to be back to normal. Funny how pets can steal our hearts in ways we never imagined.