The other day I took the dog to pick up the kids, as I always do. Ashes happily hopped into the car, all excited to be with me. Me? Completely distracted. Like everyone, I’m preoccupied with all that it’s my head, but that head is fuller than usual these days, I have to admit.
So we run home and the phone is ringing and there’s a package being delivered and I’m dictating orders about homework and chores...
Do you seeing where this is going? About an hour later, I look around and my usual bestest pal is gone. “Ashes?”
Nothing.
This never happens. That dog is my personal keeper. She knows where I am and what I’m doing at all times. So I start to worry but get immediately distracted by youngest daughter burning her quesadilla and the fire alarm going off and the Visa company calling to tell me I forgot to mail a payment...
I seriously need a vacation. Or a pill. Do they make pills for this problem?
Another hour goes by and my husband says, “Where’s your shadow?”
So I start to panic. We search the house. We search the yard. We search the woods.
Nothing.
By now I’m ready to call in the Army, Search and Rescue, and the FBI. In the meantime, my husband takes my car down to the market to get milk and suddenly the phone rings.
“Guess what I want you to do?” he says.
“Okay, I’m freaking out here. I am not going to pull your damn finger!”
“No,” he said, sounding quite hurt that I don’t enjoy this game as much as he does. “I want you to remember the last place you saw your dog.”
“I don’t remember! If I remembered, I'd know where she was!”
"OK, let’s play another game,” he said. “What do you think I found in your car?”
I literally pulled the phone from my ear and stared at it for a full minute. Oh. My. God. Have I lost it that much? “You are not telling me I left that poor dog in my car after school.”
"OK, I won’t tell you.”
Moms And Mutts, please don’t come take away my dog!
