Hey, Y’all,
I promised to tell you
about New Orleans. What a drag! We couldn’t go anywhere without mom hanging on
the line. The one time, I got out of the house on poppy, she chased me until I
met a lady who offered me solace from my pursuer, and promptly betrayed me
turning me over like a sack of potatoes.
City Park scents under
those old Live Oak Trees hold history, not just the scent of the day. I could
tell you stories, oh my! Birds, I mean big birds by the lagoons, waiting to be
chased. I didn’t like mom too much then, she always spoiled fun. Blondie just
enjoyed having her with as if it were a special treat or something. In fact
they’re pretty similar, neither one of them is too bright, but they surprise
you sometimes. She never did let go of us outside.
Did
I tell you about the two obnoxious puppies mom brought in from the road? She
calls the black little pit Lucky. When he sees her he sits with his little
chest sticking out, showing off his white stripe, like he’s some kind of good
boy or something. She tells him how good he is; he soaks it up like a pad of
butter, the little suck up. I growl at him every chance I get. Who wants a
needle tooth monster chewing your hind quarters? Or eating your food? Robert
Redford, they’re actually talking about keeping him for real; are they nuts? If
we go back to the little apartment in New Orleans near City Park with a golden
retriever, we’ll never fit.
Squirrels in the tree, rapidly
become no fun at all, if you can’t run around barking. They drove Blondie nuts;
she couldn’t get over prey she’d never seen before. That and they sat on the
lower limbs taunting her, “chatter-chatter” shaking their tails. We knew what
that meant. I trained my attention on
prey I could catch, cats. They were everywhere, if that slow woman would speed
up, I’d have been catching some. New Orleans, that’s in Louisiana, the hunters’
paradise. Blondie and I have never seen or smelled critters like these before.
One day we were walking on the Delgado Campus, Blondie stuck her nose under a
bush and there was a Muscovy, a huge ugly duck laying right there an
inch from her nose. I was stunned, what would happen, I stared at Blondie and
the Muscovy, who were eye-to-eye. Mom pulled Blondie back before she could do
anything, but then Blondie began to jump up and down, screaming, “Did you see
that duck?” She went nuts, barking her fool head off. Mom started laughing and
stood there while Blondie got it out of her system and we went home. Mom told
poppy that Blondie had a brain freeze, which gave her time to get Blondie away
from the duck. They had a good laugh about this. That duck didn’t move either;
I didn’t hear her saying it had a
brain freeze.
Blondie and I rode in the
SUV all over Louisiana. We liked riding. And then one day we went on a ride to
Florida, which is a long way. The SUV broke down at midnight in a dark
overgrown stretch of road in Alabama. I got scared. I had to go something
fierce, but in a tone of voice I had not heard from mom before she told me, no,
not now!
Mom praised God and
science for cell phones. A little while later the tow truck dropped us off at
La Quinta. First thing we went for a potty. After a slow walk with lots of
sniffing, mom had a plan. She said we had thirty hours to catch our flight in
Orlando and we could do it.
We flew back to Puerto
Rico. When I strutted out of the airport a man yelled to my mom, “That’s a
boriqua dog!” She smiled, nodded her head. The man called out to the other men,
who looked at me, “That dog’s come home.” They cheered for me. My tail flew high;
my mouth hung wide open happy face.
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