Gabriel continued on into the other runs, and An and I left Purdy's run to go back to New Friends. We had about 15 minutes left before noon when they close Dogtown to visitors for an hour, so An asked if I wanted to go see Dakota. Of course I did, so we left New Friends and went down to Conrad's. I was hoping Eileen would be there, and as luck would have it, she was. I was glad to see her there because she knew how much I liked Dakota. We said hello, and she told us we could just go on into the run, because both Dakota and his run-mate Lola Lu were purple collar now as opposed to red.

Dakota was driving it

It had been two months since I had last seen Dakota and taken him on a sleepover. I hoped he would remember me, but who knows? Huskies are generally very friendly with all people, and there are a lot of people including caregivers and volunteers, that go through Conrad's every day. I didn't even know if Dakota could remember back as far as two months ago, to a single person he spent one night with.

We entered the run, and Lola was in the inside section. Dakota was outside, separated by a sliding panel in the dog door. We said hello to Lola and made our way outside, keeping Lola inside. I sat down near the fence and Dakota came over to me with his ears back and his body wiggling slightly. He was really happy to see me. At that moment I didn't care if it was because he remembered me or not.

I like to think he did, but I don't know for sure. All I knew was that I could put my arms around Dakota again and hug him. He started licking my face in response, and leaning against me.

He was just like I remembered him. A big, fluffy teddy bear with an enormous head. For me he was still the almost-perfect dog, and the only problem was that he wouldn't have gotten along with my cat. But that wasn't his fault, almost all huskies have a high prey drive. And he was just so affectionate. He lay down in the sand for belly rubs, and I was happy to oblige. We did that for a little while, and eventually Dakota started panting because it was pretty hot outside so we brought him inside with Lola Lu. He was more comfortable in the air conditioned interior section, and was happy to receive more of my unending affection for him.

We chatted with Eileen for a bit about how he was doing, and by the time we actually left it was well past noon. We thanked Eileen again for being so accommodating, and we left to go find some lunch.

We went to Angel's Landing to eat our lunch, because it's a beautiful place to spend a half an hour. And that's something else I've enjoyed about Best Friends over the span of our visits; there are a lot of beautiful places there. In fact it's hard to find a place that isn't beautiful to some degree.

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“[Dakota] lay down in the sand for belly rubs, and I was happy to oblige.”