Chapter 8
Out of Control
It was a chilly morning on the mountain, and on this morning, Everest followed her owner as he led her into one of the cabins. Once inside, Everest's eyes bulged at what she saw. Laid out on the ground in front of her were forty liver treats. Excited, Everest began to run toward them, but suddenly felt Jake grab the back of her collar.
"Not so fast, Everest," began Jake. "You can only have three. Now, I'm going to leave you here while I go take a little walk," stated Jake before leaving the cabin and closing the door behind him.
After a 15 minute walk, Jake returned to the cabin only to find Everest sitting there with a guilty look on her face, and not a treat in site. He then briefly smiled at his trick having worked, before walking over to her.
As soon as he came over and knelt down to her, she began apologizing over and over, trying to stress that she was sorry.
"Sh-sh, Everest, I'm not mad. Now, I want you to remember what losing control of yourself like that was like?" asked her owner.
Everest gave an ashamed nod.
"And do you remember your experience yesterday?
The husky nodded again.
"Imagine reliving the experience after your done scarfing down those treats," explained Jake.
Putting two and two together, Everest asked, "you're talking about alcohol, right?"
Jake nodded. "Do you remember how I told you that it would've been worse if you'd actually been drunk?"
Everest nodded again as she wondered what Jake was getting at.
"After you woke up, could you remember what happened that morning?"
Everest nodded again, still unsure of where he was going with this.
"If you had been drunk for real, you would have only been able to remember bits and pieces of that morning, and you would've woken up with a splitting headache, and the light may have hurt your eyes too," explained Jake
Everest cringed at the thought.
"Now, imagine the same loss of control you felt this morning, but ending with yesterday's experience, plus all the things, I just described, and to still want more after words. This is what Ivan has been through again and again. Think of how scary that must be."
The room was then silent for a couple minutes, and Jake could have sworn he saw slight shiver from his pup.
"How do you know this?" asked the snow dog.
"Clever girl," thought Jake. "Let's just say you're not the only one who would rather not talk about their past," he responded. "Anyway Everest, I'm going to let you go now, because I think you've had enough and need a break. We will finish this up in the afternoon. But before you go, I want you to think about everything we just talked about."
Everest nodded and headed out the door. She had a visibly guilty and ashamed look to her as she trotted out. Jake Briefly smiled: proud of his accomplishment.
"This might've been less stressful on her if I'd simply had Katie explain all this, but I'd rather have her learn this way, so it will stick better," pondered Jake. "Lest she learned the way I did," thought her owner as he remembered a much darker time in his past.
Notes: Jake's lesson: Think about what Jake is trying to teach her
Jake's Past: think about what he might be alluding to.
I honestly considered a scene where Jake begins about how Ivan's draw towards the alcohol is different than her want for liver treats and explains this by repeatedly holding out a liver treat for her to grab and pulling it away at the last minute. Anyway, this story will wrap up in the next 3-4 chapters. I don't want to give away too much, but Everest is going to learn some more, something that I have been building towards will finally be revealed, and this incident will end where it began. As always, don't forget to review.