Tuesday, June 08, 2004

Adventure the Second of Cosmo the Mostly Good Dog: Riding Lessons

We were so excited the day Cosmo came home to us.  We’d gotten him a collar, different lengths of leashes, bowls for his food and water, toys… everything we could think of.  We drove to the shelter and signed off on the papers.  After we’d asked to adopt him there had been several days while the shelter checked to make sure we’d make a good home for him.  But once everything was settled, it seemed like Cosmo understood what had happened.  He stood so close to us, looking calmly and happily on us, like our long lost friend - which, of course, he was.  Everybody was so happy. 

Then we got him out to the car.  He looked at it with concern and backed away a little.  “It’s okay little buddy, we’re going somewhere nice.” He didn’t care.  He didn’t care what we said.  He seemed to know something bad about the car and nothing we did was going to convince him he was wrong.

Slowly we coaxed him in.  He perched uneasily on the back seat; this car hadn’t been designed with big dogs in mind.  We got in, smiled and petted our new buddy, and hit the ignition.

He was already drooling.  Almost instantly upon putting the car in reverse, we heard a sound, as if the transmission had been mounted right in the car with us and was clunking between stripped gears.  It was, of course, the dog.  The sides of his tight belly were hunching in and his neck was shooting out.  “Ka-chump.  Ka-chump.  Ka-chump.” We could feel the heavy noise lifting something from deep inside him.  We had barely started moving when the hurl began. 

The smell of used kibble filled the car instantly.  Afterwards he was as apologetic as he had been efficient in unloading his contents onto the car seat next to him.  He looked very sorry indeed.  We had to stop and scoop it out with plastic bags on our hands. 

This, then, is how we learned that Cosmo got carsick.  Even though we eventually learned to spot the warning signs and usually got him out to the curb in time, and even though after three or four years it stopped happening altogether, the car seats, sadly, never really recovered. 

Addendum: A few years later I took a pretty bad fall on my bike.  I hurt my hip and couldn’t drive for a while.  Kel helped me got into the car but I had to have the seat almost fully reclined to accommodate my swollen glute.  Once particular day Coz came along to enjoy the ride, perched in the back seat of our small sedan.  He rarely booted in the car anymore by that point but he still drooled buckets of viscous good whenever he was in the car.  As I reclined back into the seat on which he sat, needless to say, I was thoroughly glazed from eyebrows to the crown of my head by his massive jowls.  I’ve never felt so close to him, before or since.  And I’m okay with that.