Dog About Town

I L.O.V.E. going on trips w/ my mom in the van. The words "bye-bye ride" get my whole body shaking with excitement. So today, Mom's day off, we went on several errands. First stop was one of my favorites: the bank. As usual, Mom put a check in the container and whoosh, up the tube it goes and the faceless voice mumbles something incomprehensible to my mom. As soon as I heard the whoosh, I crawled into my mom's lap (which is definitely off-limits when we're driving) and stuck my head out the window, sniffing in anticipation toward the magic tube machine. Sure enough, another whoosh sound and Mom gets the container out of the machine and, there it is....Milk Bone!!!!!!!! (I never get these at home.) They even sent a treat for one of my favorite pets, the Teen Boy. A green Saf-T Pop sucker for a 5'10" boy? What gives? This is MY treat machine, but today I guess I'll share.

Next stop was PetCo, which I love, but it was a T.R.I.C.K. We didn't get to go through the great big doors into the land-of-plenty. We went through the little door where they torture beagles with shampoo and such. (I think they call it the groomers.) At least they kept the nasty shampoo and water to themselves this time, but they did the horrible nail clipping which I H.A.T.E. My mom, who is supposed to love and care for me, held me down and let them do it. What the heck??? At least she let me go into the land-of-plenty when they were finished and, being a dog, I quickly forgave her for the nail clipping trauma. While she and Teen Boy picked up my food and Felix's litter, I politely sniffed (but did not steal) the doggie treats and other temptations up and down each isle. I held out until we were just around the corner from the checkout (where they also give me the never-allowed-at-home Milk Bone) and, there it was.... a container of UNWRAPPED beef sticks right at nose level. My nose took over and my brain stopped working as I grabbed as many as I possibly could before my mom and Teen Boy could remove them from my mouth. Mom then had to put several partially-eaten beef sticks on the counter and the cashier did a rough estimate of how much I had eaten. To make matters worse, the checkout lane was directly opposite the doggie treat bar (similar to a salad bar for people) and underneath the bar was a huge bag of spilled puppy cookies ripe for the picking. How much restraint do they expect a scent hound to have? My mom had a pretty tough time finishing up the transaction, as I was pulling toward the spilled cookies like a sled-dog, but when she was done the cashier gave me another treat! (Plus, somewhere my mom has a hidden bag of partially-eaten beef sticks, and I know all it will take is a sad look upon my face or an "aren't I cute?" cock of the head and they'll be mine.)

It was a busy day for me. With it being Mom's day off and the Teens out of school this week, I haven't gotten my "me time". I'm a pretty tired beagle. Ah, I live a good life.....