Bartelby The traveler

If you are very familiar with my blog, you are familiar with Bart, the overseer of my garden. It is his job to make sure that the birds play fair and that the rabbits don't get out of control. He also occasionally sends out a warning if someone is dangerously close to stepping in dog poo. He has lived in the ideal lookout spot since he came to live with us (delivered by the Houghs). That is, until the fourth of July. On the fourth of July Van felt that Bart should come join the party. If you look closely in this photo you will see that Bart is not in his usual spot.
That was okay. It made me a little uneasy, and Van probably sensed this....that was my first mistake. My second mistake was ever turning my back on Van.
A couple days after the party we left for Brainerd. It did occur to me, once, to make sure Bart was back in his spot...but we were so busy with preparations that I didn't think of it again.
Fast forward a couple days. We're sitting around at the lake house, drinking Mike's Hard Lemonade (mmmmm) peacefully chatting. I did notice Van carrying a paper grocery bag around at one point, which gave me a little flashback to a bag I saw him with at my house, but I figured he just had some beer in there or something.
Then I'm distracted again by Liz pointing out something in her People magazine. The conversation went something like this...
Liz (pointing to a picture): Hey, do you know who this is?
Me: No.
Liz: Oh.
Me: ?
Liz: It's this issue....
Me: Okay.
I was kind of thinking maybe she had lost her conversational skills, or maybe she just thought I was a loser for not knowing who the celebrity in the picture was. Turns out she was just trying to distract me. Then Van was sitting next to Liz and they were giving each other looks and Liz was trying not to giggle and I started wondering what was going on. Liz wouldn't say anything, so I went back to my knitting....or drinking...or whatever I was doing.
Then my eyes wandered out to the end of the dock and I saw this:

After I got over my shock and laughter I heard the whole story. Turns out Bartelby occasionally likes to go walkabout. I'll let the pictures from Van tell the tale...






After those photos I was glad to see this one:

If you refer back to the previous entry, you'll see that Bart ended his trip with a Busch beer on the dock, as well as participation in the family photos. Though he thanks Van for the pleasant vacation, I'm glad to say Bartelby is now safely back at his post in the yard.