~
My Third Joy ~
Going Places
My Mom gave me a bath after about a
week once she thought I was settled in (I really needed it, I was totally
scroungy.)
Bathing became another part of our being together. I used to get showers with her. Some part of me resisted that, but I didn’t really protest too much because we had this nice thing together, and because it felt so good to get massaged and to feel clean afterwards. I don’t think I’d actually call it a “joy” but it was really cool.
While we lived in that house, my Mom had to take the garbage to a place to be picked up that was a couple of miles up the dirt road we lived on. I got to go with her. That was so cool. That was so super, super cool. I just loved to ride with her in the truck.
She used to put me in her shirt pocket for the ride, so I was really close to her. It was wonderful. I could see out the windows where there were big creatures she called “cows” eating grass out in the fields (yuck).
When I got bigger (I grew up pretty fast once I got to eating) I wrapped myself around her neck like a collar when we went to take the garbage.
Once she took me to a new place farther from home than I’d been before. I had to wait in the truck by myself for a while (I didn’t like that part much) but when she came back she had slices of sandwich meat that she tore up into little pieces for me and we had a picnic lunch together sitting in our truck.
I always loved it when we went places together. And as I got bigger we went to more and more new places.
Eventually I got too big to loll around her neck when we went for drives, so she fixed me a riding place behind the passenger seat (our truck was a king-cab) where she could see me, and I could see out the window.
She pulled down the seat in the back and fastened a cat carrier (those things cats have to ride in airplanes in) with the seat belt. On top of that, she put a foam mat and covered it with some really cushy stuff. I got to ride up there whenever I wanted. This was a good spot ‘cause I could see out the window real good. I liked sitting there and on the passenger seat and on the floor below. (And no, I never got under my Mom’s feet when she was driving.)
If wanted to, I could go into my hidy-hole (the cat carrier) or through the window into the back of the truck (it had a camper shell on it) where my sand box was. There was also a perch back there where I could sit and watch out the window. When we were parked somewhere, we had a special signal that meant I could get up on the dash.
Going places together in the truck with my
Mom was my third joy.
I went to many places over time. I rode with her all the way to California
where BV lived, and I even got to ride with Mom and BV in BV’s car.
We’d go out into the country and I could get out and snoop around.
Mom got me a harness and a long leash for the walks we’d take so that I wouldn’t get lost in the woods or go in the streets (you know, because of instincts and all). She always protected me.
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Copyright ©2003 First published May 1, 2003, Lauretta Graham, Durga Ma. All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including the use of information storage and retrieval systems without permission in writing from Lauretta Graham, AKA Durga Ma.