Doggone

For the second time last week, I narrowly missed having a heart attack.

Or a stroke.

Or a heart-a-stroke. (*)

Or all three.  Consecutively.

On Friday afternoon, Roxy and I headed into town for some girl time and to run a couple of errands.  First stop was Miss Tammy's salon for Tammy to work her magic on my (very functional) man hands.

It was our second stop where both Roxy and I almost needed medical attention.

My plan was to stop at All Pet and use the $10 gift certificate I had.  On Roxy, of course.  I pulled into the parking lot, and Roxy started to cry a bit.  This was something that she never, ever has done before.  Since it was so odd for her to do, I thought that she may need to go pee.

I grabbed her leash that I keep in my car, went around to the back to open up the hatch.  Now, Roxy is not a dog that jumps in and out of our vehicles.  While she loves nothing more than going for a ride, either Randy and I have to lift her into the truck or car.  Despite that fact, I am always very careful when I open the back of the car to make sure she doesn't even think about jumping out.

Roxy was on the verge of jumping out.  That just furthered my belief that she needed out to pee.  I clipped the leash onto her collar, picked her up and set her down on the pavement, intending to walk her over to a grassy area along side the parking lot.

My heart almost stopped when her collar came completely off.  My worst nightmare had come true.

This wasn't the first time this had happened to me.  A few months ago, in the Petco parking lot, her collar came off.  That time, at least, it was before I had even gotten her out of the car.  Since then, I have been alternately untrusting of the collar and worried to death that this would happen again.

Oh, and making sure that her collar is on securely.

Luckily, Roxy was just as stunned as I was and just froze right where she was.  I was able to scoop her up and get her back into the car.  No thanks to the couple that were across the parking lot calling to her.  I got her collar back on her and reluctantly walked her over to the grass.

Roxy's business attended to, the two of us then went into All Pet, where the nice young lady helped me get a new, improved and very sturdy collar.  With the collar and the two chewies Roxy picked out, after using the gift certificate, my total bill was less than $3.00.

I think I would have paid a million dollars for a new collar for her.

Oh my, was I discombobulated after that.  Actually, both of us were very discombobulated and really wanted nothing more than to go home right then and leave the other errands for another day.  However, one of the stops was the package store, and I needed wine.

Wine night couldn't have come at a better time.

I just can't even think of what I would do if something happened to Roxy.

Our next stop was WalMart.  Going to WalMart is really starting to be a not-so-pleasant experience.  It didn't help that, by this time, it was 4pm.  On a Friday afternoon.

I got what was on my list, plus a couple of impulse buys to go along with the wine.

Four bags of jelly beans and a bag of Reese's eggs.

Finally, errands were over and both Roxy and I got home to Randy in one piece.

Home is good.

Have the BEST day ever!

~ Dorothy

(*) Phrase coined by my very dear friend, Tracy.  Hi, Tracy!  Love you!