“She seems very well trained for being so young.”
“She should be. I’ve been training her since she was a puppy.”
“To throw garbage away?”
“And other things. Like not running off.” He turned his attention to the dog, speaking in a more excited tone. “But she’s still got a ways to go, don’t you, good girl?”
Daisy whined, her tail thumping.
“If you’re not from Ocracoke, how long have you lived there?”
“It’ll be four years in April.”
“What could have possibly brought your family to Ocracoke?”
“My dad was in the military and after he retired, my mom wanted to be closer to her parents. And because we’d had to move a lot for his job, my dad figured it was only fair to let my mom decide where to settle down for a while. He told us it would be an adventure.”
“Has it been an adventure?”
“At times,” he said. “In the summers it’s a lot of fun. It can get pretty crowded on the island, especially around the Fourth of July. And the beach is really beautiful. Daisy loves to run out there.”
“Can I ask what the camera is for?”
“Anything interesting, I guess. There wasn’t much today, even before it got dark.”
“Is there ever?”
“Last year, a fishing boat caught on fire. The ferry diverted to help rescue the crew since the Coast Guard hadn’t arrived yet. It was very sad, but the crew was unharmed and I got some amazing photos. There are dolphins, too, and if they’re breaching, I can sometimes get a nice shot. But today I really brought it for my project.”
“What’s your project?”
“To become an Eagle Scout. I’m training Daisy, and I wanted to get some good shots of her.”
I frowned. “I don’t get it. You can become an Eagle Scout for training a dog?”
“I’m getting her ready for more advanced training later,” he said. “She’s learning to be a mobility assistance dog.” As if anticipating my next question, he explained, “For people in wheelchairs.”
“You mean like a seeing-eye dog?”
“Sort of. She needs different skills, but it’s the same principle.”
“Like throwing out the garbage?”
“Exactly. Or retrieving the remote control or the telephone handset. Or opening drawers or cabinets or doors.”
“How can she open doors?”
“You need a handle on the door, not a knob, of course. But she stands on her hind legs and uses her paws, then nudges the door the rest of the way open with her nose. She’s pretty good at it. She can open drawers, too, as long as there’s a cord on the handle. The main thing I have to work on is her concentration, but I think part of that is probably her age. I hope she’s accepted into the official program, but I’m pretty sure she will be. She isn’t required to have any advanced skills—that’s what the formal trainers are for—but I wanted to give her a head start. And when she’s ready, she’ll go to her new home.”
“You have to give her away?”
“In April.”
“If it were me, I’d keep the dog and forget the Eagle Scout project.”
“It’s more about helping someone who needs it. But you’re right. It’s not going to be easy. We’ve been inseparable since I got her.”
“Except when you’re at school, you mean.”
“Even then,” he said. “I’ve already graduated, but I was homeschooled by my mom. My brothers are homeschooled, too.”
Back in Seattle, I only knew one family who homeschooled their children, and they were religious fundamentalists. I didn’t know them very well; all I knew was that the daughters had to wear long dresses all the time and the family put up a huge nativity scene in their front yard every Christmas.
“Did you like it? Being homeschooled, I mean?”
“Loved it,” he said.
I thought about the social aspect of school, which was far and away my favorite part of it. I couldn’t imagine not seeing my friends.
“Why?”
“Because I could learn at my own pace. My mom’s a teacher and since we moved around so much, my parents thought we’d get a better education that way.”
“Do you have desks in one of the spare rooms? With a chalkboard and a projector?”
“No,” he said. “We work at the kitchen table when we need a lesson. But we do a lot of studying on our own, too.”