I was grooving on the irony of having one post about how much I love my dogs and how great they are and another post showing how I like to stuff my dog into species-inappropriate habitats and laugh.
tonight, however, I got that very primal reminder that even if you love your little dog a million pounds and even if you want to keep him happy and even if he is generally well behaved and doesn’t run away…things can happen.
I got that reminder twice.
1) on the way home from dropping Anna off a large dog came out of nowhere, bolted across the street and ran into the side of a moving car. Strangely enough, there was a cop between me and the guy that got hit by the dog. The dog was okay, very dazed and obviously not feeling good, but up and walking after a few minutes. I sat in my car and cried. The dogs owner was almost hysterical, you could tell she was terrified that her dog had been hurt. He just happened to get out without the leash.
2) when I got home and I was dragging stuff in, David came out to help me and Ghengis ran out the door. As I said before, I never get too concerned, he never runs far and comes when called. He even got in the car with me to ride the ten feet into the garage. Then he bolted. He just looked at me, looked around the yard and took off. At one point he ran into the alley and into the path of an oncoming minivan. The minivan was going slow enough that he was never in danger, but good christ that puts a fear in you. Then he took off around the house and ran all over. Eventually he came in, but I was not pleased with him. He only got 2 little bits of my carnitas burrito.
So after much wrangling and finagling, I finally got a dogsitter. The ever lovely and vaguely humble Anna will be watching the dogs and feeding the lizards and generally doing things like getting out of her house for a weekend. For this I am grateful and for this I will produce for her a batch of salsa verde and a batch of hummus (as well as cash and the burrito and horchata I bought for her dinner tonight).
Tomorrow I am off to the neutrino collector (I know I type neuron collector previously, that was wrong. Please always keep in mind that my brain is a loose collection of paperclips, bits of string, bright strips of foil, lint, cogs, gears, pins, v-belts, brushings and cottong batting all poorly maintained by a minimally trained mousy gnome. Yes a gnome). Also we will hopefully be camping, hiking and kayaking and peeing in the wilderness. If I die you can have my shoes.