Kylo's Trip to Auckland

The gate agent at Boston Logan raised an eyebrow at the crate. "Auckland, huh? Long flight for a dog."

Kylo Ren didn't know that yet. He just knew something big was happening. His people were nervous. His crate smelled like home, blankets and an old t-shirt tucked in the corner. He pressed his nose against the door and whined once, then settled in the way he always did when he wasn't sure what came next but trusted the humans to figure it out.

Somewhere over the Pacific, Kylo slept through most of it. He wasn't the type to fuss. Give him a ball and a reason to run and he was happy. Strangers made him nervous, always had, but this wasn't strangers. This was the long road home.

When the crate door finally opened in Auckland, there was no hesitation. Kylo exploded out in a blur of tail and legs, licking every face he could reach, spinning in circles, jumping like he'd been saving up eleven thousand miles of joy just for this moment. His people laughed and cried and knelt down to catch him before he knocked someone over. He didn't stop moving for a full five minutes. He just couldn't.

New Zealand smelled different. Greener, wetter, full of new trails winding up hills he'd never seen. Kylo Ren didn't know yet about the mountains waiting for him, or the other dogs he'd meet at the park down the road, the ones who'd become his new best friends. But he knew this: he was home, his people were home, and there was a whole country out there to run through.

Bucket list item one: find every trail. Bucket list item two: make a friend. Kylo Ren was already halfway there.