Going OUT!

A car ride! A car ride! We’re going for a car ride!

I danced and jumped around the front door, eager to saddle up in my leash and get on out the door! There’s been so little of that these last nine months, I almost forgot the excitement of a car ride. Don’t get me wrong. It’s great to have the tall ones around ALL THE FREAKIN’ TIME but even greater to escape our four walls – and the four corners of our block, which bound my five-times-daily walk – and venture far afield of our neighborhood!

“A car ride, Scout,” she says, hitching my leash up to my collar. “Out the back door. To the garage. That’s a good boy.”

She puts on her coat, picks up her purse, and, leash in hand, heads for the back door. One step out, she pauses to pick up a tidy blue plastic baggie full of my you-know-what – the morning’s spoils left on the back porch rather than thrown in the trash as it usually is. That should have been my first clue.

But, exuberant, I eagerly trotted toward the car, took my seat riding shotgun, and we were off!

There’s something kind of messed up about a system that won’t even let your Mom go in to see the doctor with you, but that’s what COVID has done to us. She opened the car door and I hopped out, but when she remained seated and handed my leash to the veterinary technician who had appeared in the parking lot, I hopped right back in again. Nope, not going anywhere without my Mama. Not no way, not no how.

Naturally, the tall ones prevailed, and I give my masked amigas credit – they did all they could to take really good care of me. I think they kind of like me there. Everyone crowded around – Taylor and Marisa and Pam and Daniela – and took turns taking selfies with me. It was nice, and not quite so scary with friends to look out for me, even without my Mom.

I was only there an hour, but I found the whole thing – the poking, the prodding, the blood work, the strange smells – to be exhausting.

So, once safely back in the familiar four walls of my boring COVID-19 life, here’s how I’m spending my afternoon.

I’m happy to bid good riddance to 2020 and welcome 2021, when, with any luck, a car ride will bring real adventures again!