"Stuff is eaten by dogs, broken by family and friends, sanded down by the wind, frozen by the mountains, lost by the prairie, burnt off by the sun, washed away by the rain. So you are left with dogs, family, friends, sun, rain, wind, prairie and mountains. What more do you want?"
Federico Calboli
Tuesday, October 27, 2015
Driving with Animals
Charley Waterman used to say. of a dog that always occupied the driving seat when the humans were absent, that she knew driving was important, and that somebody had to do it; she just didn't know how.
Whenever my yellow Lab Belle accompanied me on hunting or fishing trips, she invariably moved into the driver's seat when I gassed up, causing much mirth among bystanders. The pretty standard question was, "So your Lab drives, huh?" My response was, "She has to drive. She's not worth a damn as a navigator."
Glad to be back! After a month of exile from my work computer, which has BLOCKED your Querencia site, along with many others--no seeming rhyme or reason--other similar blogs I can access just fine! I'm being slowly and surely dragged into computer slavery, but still resisting actually submitting to one in my home; trying to utilize/enjoy them but stay as peripheral as possible. So somebody suggested I go get a library card and use THOSE free computers, which is just what I'm doing this rainy day I was in town anyway! More'n one way to skin a cat.... But it was no doubt being "exiled from Querencia"(hey, that's got an interesting ring to it...)that motivated me to seek another solution in civilization!.....But this post and the comment above reminded me of a coupla stories of my own--one occurred one day when I was driving home from work with my first two wolf-hybrids in a small, decrepit Chevette(lo, those many years ago...) I was allowed to bring my dogs to work with me on that job(another long story for another time perhaps), so they accompanied me every day(which was GREAT!), and got very familiar with riding in even cramped little cars! My male tended to take up the entire backseat, and my female preferred riding "shotgun" up front with me. I stopped at a store to run in quickly and get some milk or something--it was Winter and cold, so I wasn't concerned about dogs overheating left a few minutes in the car. As I was coming out, a fellow asked me if those "big dogs" in the little car were mine--I acknowledged they were, immediately fearing something untoward had happened. "I think one of them wants you to hurry up" was his reply. As I exited the store, I heard a car horn blaring over and over--it was my female sitting upright in the driver's side, front paws on the steering wheel, and bouncing back and forth honking the horn with one paw or another--bringing lots of annoyed looks from people in the parking lot!!!......L.B.
....and another--those same wolf dogs, as I was preparing to leave work for the day(on that same job), had been after a squirrel, and with combined teamwork, the female caught it. She WAS NOT about to relinquish the delicacy of fresh-caught squirrel, and I am the type of pack leader who doesn't mind accomodating such things, but I didn't want to wait around while she took her leisure eating it, so I did insist she bring it with her in the car--the front seat next to me as usual. As I was heading out of town(Asheville, N. C. in those days), I was stopped at a stoplight with multiple lanes. It was summer, and the windows were mostly rolled down. Someone pulled up beside me, who by amazing coincidence, just happened to be a friend I used to work with on another job. He waved and called out enthusiastically, but his face dropped, and his expression turned to a combination of horror and disgust, when my wolf dog raised up from the seat where she was busy devouring the squirrel, blood smeared all over her face(she was a white animal, so fresh blood showed up very well on her white fur!), and her lips curled in a snarl, thinking perhaps this person in the next car was contemplating stealing the remnants of her squirrel! I just smiled and waved(just smiled and waved!) and drove on as the light turned green!.......L.B.
....and okay, how about another? I HAD to relate this one, too--many MANY years ago, I was mostly incarcerated on a college campus, and only able to keep an illegal rabbit hidden as a dorm pet--a beautiful Dutch bunny named Sophia. She accompanied me everywhere too, and became quite the comfortable car passenger, stretching out fully on the expansive front seat of my first ever car, a family cast-off, a battered tank of a vehicle I'd had for awhile--a 1970 Impala. One day I was "breaking reservation" and heading back to my parents' home for Xmas break, and as college students often did in those days, coordinated the trip with another college student(who I didn't actually know) heading the same way, who did not have a car, but glad to split gasoline costs(under a dollar a gallon in those days!). I had warned her I had a rabbit and the color of my car, and that it was an Impala, which apparently confused her somewhat, as you will see. AS I drove around to her dorm on the appointed day to pick her up, she looked VERY suprised when she opened the passenger door to be greeted by my very socialized rabbit! She stated that she thought MY CAR was a "Rabbit"(there was a Volkswagon Rabbit car in those days), and she hadn't expected a REAL rabbit! She was fine with it, though, and I had to joke that she would REALLY have been suprised had I drove up in a Rabbit with an impala on the front seat!....L.B.
5 comments:
Whenever my yellow Lab Belle accompanied me on hunting or fishing trips, she invariably moved into the driver's seat when I gassed up, causing much mirth among bystanders. The pretty standard question was, "So your Lab drives, huh?" My response was, "She has to drive. She's not worth a damn as a navigator."
Glad to be back! After a month of exile from my work computer, which has BLOCKED your Querencia site, along with many others--no seeming rhyme or reason--other similar blogs I can access just fine! I'm being slowly and surely dragged into computer slavery, but still resisting actually submitting to one in my home; trying to utilize/enjoy them but stay as peripheral as possible. So somebody suggested I go get a library card and use THOSE free computers, which is just what I'm doing this rainy day I was in town anyway! More'n one way to skin a cat.... But it was no doubt being "exiled from Querencia"(hey, that's got an interesting ring to it...)that motivated me to seek another solution in civilization!.....But this post and the comment above reminded me of a coupla stories of my own--one occurred one day when I was driving home from work with my first two wolf-hybrids in a small, decrepit Chevette(lo, those many years ago...) I was allowed to bring my dogs to work with me on that job(another long story for another time perhaps), so they accompanied me every day(which was GREAT!), and got very familiar with riding in even cramped little cars! My male tended to take up the entire backseat, and my female preferred riding "shotgun" up front with me. I stopped at a store to run in quickly and get some milk or something--it was Winter and cold, so I wasn't concerned about dogs overheating left a few minutes in the car. As I was coming out, a fellow asked me if those "big dogs" in the little car were mine--I acknowledged they were, immediately fearing something untoward had happened. "I think one of them wants you to hurry up" was his reply. As I exited the store, I heard a car horn blaring over and over--it was my female sitting upright in the driver's side, front paws on the steering wheel, and bouncing back and forth honking the horn with one paw or another--bringing lots of annoyed looks from people in the parking lot!!!......L.B.
....and another--those same wolf dogs, as I was preparing to leave work for the day(on that same job), had been after a squirrel, and with combined teamwork, the female caught it. She WAS NOT about to relinquish the delicacy of fresh-caught squirrel, and I am the type of pack leader who doesn't mind accomodating such things, but I didn't want to wait around while she took her leisure eating it, so I did insist she bring it with her in the car--the front seat next to me as usual. As I was heading out of town(Asheville, N. C. in those days), I was stopped at a stoplight with multiple lanes. It was summer, and the windows were mostly rolled down. Someone pulled up beside me, who by amazing coincidence, just happened to be a friend I used to work with on another job. He waved and called out enthusiastically, but his face dropped, and his expression turned to a combination of horror and disgust, when my wolf dog raised up from the seat where she was busy devouring the squirrel, blood smeared all over her face(she was a white animal, so fresh blood showed up very well on her white fur!), and her lips curled in a snarl, thinking perhaps this person in the next car was contemplating stealing the remnants of her squirrel! I just smiled and waved(just smiled and waved!) and drove on as the light turned green!.......L.B.
....and okay, how about another? I HAD to relate this one, too--many MANY years ago, I was mostly incarcerated on a college campus, and only able to keep an illegal rabbit hidden as a dorm pet--a beautiful Dutch bunny named Sophia. She accompanied me everywhere too, and became quite the comfortable car passenger, stretching out fully on the expansive front seat of my first ever car, a family cast-off, a battered tank of a vehicle I'd had for awhile--a 1970 Impala. One day I was "breaking reservation" and heading back to my parents' home for Xmas break, and as college students often did in those days, coordinated the trip with another college student(who I didn't actually know) heading the same way, who did not have a car, but glad to split gasoline costs(under a dollar a gallon in those days!). I had warned her I had a rabbit and the color of my car, and that it was an Impala, which apparently confused her somewhat, as you will see. AS I drove around to her dorm on the appointed day to pick her up, she looked VERY suprised when she opened the passenger door to be greeted by my very socialized rabbit! She stated that she thought MY CAR was a "Rabbit"(there was a Volkswagon Rabbit car in those days), and she hadn't expected a REAL rabbit! She was fine with it, though, and I had to joke that she would REALLY have been suprised had I drove up in a Rabbit with an impala on the front seat!....L.B.
The body language of that second picture begs a caption, something like: "Carl, watch out -- there's pedestrians in the cross-walk!"
Carl: "I see them, Betty!"
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