Oh my. It started off so well, really it did. When he’s not asleep, Cowboy loves being in the car and doesn’t mind a bit while I’m in a store. It’s just another great opportunity for a snooze. Sooooo I took him to the gym at Short Pump and then to Trader Joe’s, cracking his window open a bit more than usual as a special treat to get some fresh air. (This is foreshadowing — rookie mistake.) When I left him, he started barking like a banshee, very unlike him. I almost turned around and went back to the car, but then I thought I shouldn’t let him know that barking like that get results. So I vowed to whip thru Trader Joe’s. Yeah, right. That’s gonna happen. After all, I had “CROSSED THE RIVER” to get there, so I had to stock up!
For those not familiar with Richmond, people here act like crossing the James River is like crossing the Suez Canal in a punctured raft. They’ll drive twice as long within their own county without batting an eye, though. Anyway, before I knew it, “Cowboys”were just a football team in Dallas and I was busy scouring labels for excessive sodium content. Finally I got in the line to check out.
Then it happened. I overheard a lady asking the store manager to page whoever had a black car with a traumatized Springer Spaniel in it. He was barking incessantly and trying to jump out the window. I hightailed it out of there to some good Samaritan at my car who had been trying to calm him down. At this point he was practically half-in and half out of the car. Oh my. Of course I apologized profusely, and the extremely kind woman insisted she wait with Cowboy while I finished checking out since I had CROSSED THE RIVER and all. Even after all that drama, she was a big Cowboy fan, the dog, not the football team.
Ah, so today I got the Trader Joe’s Special of the Day — a big slice of humble pie with a couple of doggie treats on the side. Well, it could have been worse. At least he wasn’t in this position, not today anyway.
LibbY