Since we had a long drive ahead of us and Alan wanted to be home by the time the boys got back from cross country practice, we decided (much as it killed us…) that we’d have to skip the Inn breakfast at 8:30 and leave at 7:30. Judy was crushed that we wouldn’t be there for breakfast but she offered to leave us some fruit and coffee cake in the den at 7:00. So we had coffee/tea, fruit and coffee cake before heading out. John and Judy were bustling about in the kitchen getting breakfast ready for the others so we just popped in to thank them and say goodbye.
We hit the road and started our journey home. It was pretty much just driving and driving…stopping occasionally for gas or food. We won’t talk about the wrong turns and backtracks…
The only sort of adventure was when we were on a 4-lane divided highway and coming up behind a big, extended cab pickup. I saw something moving…it looked like a dog standing on the back bumper. That obviously couldn’t be right. I said something to Alan and he said, it can’t be a live dog…it’s got to be stuffed or something. Then we both saw it move.
We got closer and figured out the truck was pulling a small trailer…like you’d haul a snowmobile on…and the dog was indeed alive and pacing around on the trailer. We were horrified. What kind of idiot would do that?!? All he had to do would be hit a bump and the dog would go flying off the trailer and into following traffic. At best the dog would die instantly and at worst it would cause a multi-car accident.
We talked about did he/didn’t he know the dog was there. But then I thought, as a long-time dog-owner, what it’s like to have a dog. I would bet the guy didn’t know the dog was back there. He probably got into the truck, the dog hopped on the trailer, and he pulled out without a thought. The trailer was low enough, he’d never see the dog in any of his mirrors. By the time we came to that conclusion, we’d passed him and traffic wouldn’t allow us to slow down enough to get beside him and try to get him to open his window so we could yell to him. An exit came up and we decided to pull off and get right back on, which would put us behind him and we could catch up to him again.
However, as luck would have it, he also pulled off at that exit. Alan got out and flagged him down. He rolled down his window and Alan asked if he knew he had a dog on his trailer. He said, “What?!?!” Alan repeated it and he jumped out of the cab and dashed back to the trailer. He had no idea the dog was back there and was ever so grateful we told him. He thanked Alan repeatedly and shook his hand. He put the dog in the back of the pickup and we all went on our way.
