Conversations overheard

LULA MAE here. Today I overheard a great conversation Cherry Pie told Head Poodle. I am dying to share it with all of you.

On Fridays Cherry Pie picks up the grandkids. They get to go to the MickeyD's of their choice. The ritual is set. Everyone gets a treat, they eat a bite or two then off they go to play in the play structure.
Rachel and B play, and all is as usual.
Back in the car, halfway home comes a question from B.

"Grandma, what's a spirit?"

Hmmmmm...... Great question B. Let me think about that for a minute. (Great save eh????)

Grandma scrambles quickly in the archives of her brain for an age appropriate answer to the pithy question of the 5 year old.

"Well," Grandma begins with a bit of hesitation in her voice, "SOME people believe that there is this thing inside of a person that we can't see that helps us. It isn't physical, like our bodies are, and you can't SEE it."

A little voice from the backseat says, "Yep."

"And SOME people believe that this thing called spirit can live outside your body, it will never die."

A resounding "YES."

"So, B, Why do you ask that question?"

"One of the little girls I was playing with told me, 'Your spirit will live forever with God' when we were in the play structure."

"Really?" Grandma looks into the rearview mirror to observe the young man in his car seat. B is sitting with his right forefinger in his mouth, and fingering his ear, just as he has always done since babyhood. He is staring out the window, appearing to be in deep contempation.

"Yep, it was in the room with the little square windows." B pulls his finger out of his mouth with a slurp. The finger goes back into his mouth immediately after the pronouncement.

Maybe it's the highway to heaven? Grandma thinks silently in her head.

"Well, B, what do YOU think?" Grandma tries to sound noncommittal. "You have a brain,"

"Yep, and it is bigger than an insect!" B sounds authoritative.

Grandma continues without missing a heartbeat, "You have a brain, so that means you can think for yourself. So tell me, do you believe her?"

"YES!!!!" B is emphatic.

"WHY do you believe her?" Grandma asks incredulously.

"Because she has blond hair. She is very cute," B replies with a dreamy quality in his voice.

Grandma responds very quickly, "If you believe every pretty girl, you are in for a LOT of trouble son."

"How much further till we get home?" Rachel pipes in. "I'm hungry."

Conversation over.

There you have it.

Summer's End

The last weekend of summer, we were taken for a long ride in the car. Our very first.

The Mominator was placed in her very own carrier, and we were crowded into the back of the SUV with other assorted luggage. Cherry Pie carefully packed everything so as to keep the Mistress Lula Mae and myself from peeking through and seeing where we were going. WHAT???

It didn't take long for us to break down the barricade. Heck, this was our first road trip and do you think we are so easily dissuaded??? Not on your life mister....or misses as the case may be.

Anyway, after about 30 minutes in the car, much of it spent looking out all of the windows and pacing around the area we were supposed to sleep(who thought that was what was going to happen, eh?) we made our first stop...

I kinda recognized the area, but it was a fuzzy memory for me. Head Poodle went up to this front door and knocked. Cherry Pie tried to hold onto our leashes, but we busted out the back door the second we saw an opening. Head Poodle screamed like a little girl. Cherry Pie and her got into a bit of an argument...

"They are going to get run over," Head Poodle was screaming.
"Calm down, they are just getting out of the car. They are headed straight for you and that ISN'T into the street," Cherry Pie tried to sound calm, but we knew she was a bit worried too....

Truth is, Mistress Lula Mae and me cannot be contained when we are excited. This was our first big foray into an unknown world and we were EXCITED man.... Then the front door opened. I arrived just in time to see someone I really do remember, Cindy.She was the first human I saw when I was a little pup. I remember being in her lap with her petting me and talking to me real sweet. This place was where I was born. I ran into the house, Lula hot on my heels. My first owner was so excited to see me. I am all grown up now, but she just wanted me to be in her lap again....well, I did get the front half of myself on her lap, the rest of me wouldn't fit!!!! It was a happy reunion.

Then another fabulous thing happened. Lula Mae was taken out to the SUV, and another human I remember came in with my MOTHER and BROTHER....Let me tell you that was some family reunion....My brother is quite the ladies man. He is as tall as me, and apricot. He even had a moustache like me!!! We started running around that living room, and banking off the furniture. Head Poodle and Cherry Pie were not in favor of it at all. Roger, the male human, was very happy to see his "boys" play...I was happy to see him too. I tried to sit on his lap but ended up sitting on the couch next to him. He and I had long talks in the garage...He was very good to me.

My brother, Rusty, and I were so noisy, my mother tried to break us up. She barked a "quiet boys" to us. We ignored her. After about 10 minutes of complete dog mayhem (according to Cherry Pie) I was escorted back out to the SUV and we were headed out of town. Destination unknown.

After about an hour, we finally settled down for a nap. I don't know how long I was napping, but I felt the SUV come to a stop. It was almost dark. Turns out we were at our destination, West Walker Motel.

Head Poodle immediately took us out for a walk. We were very interested in the new smells. The terrain looked very much like home, and some of the walks we would go on up in the hills. Turns out we were supposed to go potty on our walk...Well, I don't know what the big deal is, I go pee when I need to, I don't go pee on demand!!!! Head Poodle was not happy with me or Lula... HA.....

Cherry Pie was taking out all the luggage and our beds. The little room was all made up for us by the time we got back. Then we sat outside the room, tied to their chairs while they ate BARBECUE....torture....we like BBQ pig too...what were they thinking? We would sit all nice and still with that heavenly aroma all around us? Wrong O Mary Lu..... Lula actually pulled Cherry Pie over in her chair once. Sorry Cherry.

After the ribs had been consumed, and tucked away in the garbage can (why can't we have at least a bone?) we were taken for another walk.... There were some other humans cooking on their barbecue. AGAIN....talk about heavenly smells. Head Poodle and Cherry Pie talked to the people. They were the owners of the motel where we were staying. They said something about not letting us run around without our leashes on because there was a MOUNTAIN LION around. DARN we were looking forward to a good romp after being cooped up in that SUV for hours....It was kinda fun though because we got to get up on the swing with them....only Mommy did not like to share the seat with us....too bad Mominator...we are bigger than you.

Next thing we knew, it was bedtime....What??? we just got here....After lots of messing around with the human bed...perpetrated by Cherry Pie...it was lights out. Well, I settled down on the bed I always sleep on, yep they brought it along, but Lula Mae had other plans. Turns out she likes to sleep on the bed with the humans....a bad habit from a previous lifetime. There was lots of ruckus about all that. I don't remember much about it because I was too tired to pay attention to all the fussing going on.

Lights were on, lights were off, toilets flushed, people were up and down, Lula Mae kept sneaking onto the bed...it was a true "circus night" as Head Poodle and Cherry Pie calls it.

Then the sneezing began...Both of them...sneeze, sneeze, sneeze. They they said they started itching, more lights on, lots of noise coming from the bathroom.

"Where's the rescue cream? Where's the antihistamines? Where's the Flonase?" On and on it went...

I don't know how much sleep we got, but it wasn't much.

The next thing I remember is the Mominator scratching in her little cage. Cherry Pie was up like a flash. She stumbled around, put on a fleece jacket, and the leash on Mominator. Out they went.....Hey, what about us??? I have to pee too!!!! Thankfully it was a short trip.

Cherry Pie came in grumbling something about "You poodles better figure out how to pee while on the leash. I'm sleepy!!!" Out we went too.... There was this little area where Cherry let us go, we immediately went pee, no problem...To tell you the truth it is very confusing. Most of the time we are not ALLOWED to pee while on the leash. It is all business, walk, walk, walk....Now, they want us to go pee while they stand there and look at us??? What's up with that???? Let us just say this, the whole weekend proceeded this way.

Cherry Pie brought us back into the room and announced, "I'm ready to go home."

Lickety split we were packed. Head Poodle lead the charge, Cherry Pie had the SUV packed in record time. We were out the door, but not quite on our way home. The humans wanted to eat a "country" breakfast. Lula Mae and I sat in the front seat of the SUV and observed all the coming and goings of the business. One of the waitresses at the cafe wanted to meet us. She said she had never seen standard poodles before. Now she has. Mominator was relegated to her little prison.

After breakfast, there was one more treat in store for us. We got to go swimming in a river.....It was a beautiful day. We stopped a couple of times for Cherry Pie to go and take pictures. Head Poodle read her paper in the car. We watched all the action. We got to get out and pee a couple of times when there were no cars around.

Finally, we arrived at the river. Boy was it fun...it was hot and the water was so cool. After that little trek, the humans got an ice cream. What about us???? We got a drink of water....bummer.

We were back in the SUV and on our way home. There were lots of noisy motorcycles on the highway. It was the Street Vibrations weekend. Head Poodle and Cherry Pie were very excited to be "away from all that darned noise" if only for a couple of days.

To tell you the truth, we were glad to be back home. We are used to running like crazy in our own backyard. No mountain lions, no ticks, just lovely green grass. Home. Heaven.