So Jim said, "Let's make a quick trip to Florida. "Great!" I said. So Sunday morning, after a day at the gun bash, off we go. I decided to take the dogs and save some money on kenneling. My dogs are never sick. Well, not until Sunday. A short time into the trip, Hickory started making this coughing, wheezing sound with heavy breathing and panting. I knew something was wrong and my first thought was that he was having a heart attack. Jim's response was, "Maybe he has asthma." Seriously, asthma. A dog doesn't just wake up with asthma. Clearing, he was possibly having a heart attack. Within a few more minutes, Jim started gagging. He informed me that the car smelled terrible. I honestly didn't notice it. Being the dutiful person, that I am, I told him to pull over when it was good and that I would check Hickory and the source of the smell.
I didn't dream that he would pull off the side of road on Rt. 119 headed toward Summersville. Highway 119, Capital City of we will give you a ticket for breathing!! Jim whips the car off the road and I hurry over to the other side of the car to check Hickory. Hickory is throwing up white foaming vomit. I had found the source of the smell. About this time, Jim decided to take advantage of the stop to go to the bathroom, where there is no bathroom. I walk to the other side of the car to get the nuts I dropped on the floor earlier out of the car. Jim also hates anything on the floor of the car.
So to set the scene, I am picking up mixed nuts off the floor mat, Jim is peeing between to opened doors and I am mentally trying to figure out what is wrong with Hickory and what to do. Floating around in my own world, I didn't realize for a few moments that Jim was talking to a police officer. When I did, I just got in the car and kept my mouth shut. I did not want to end up in jail in Summersville, WV.
After a few minutes, Jim got back into the car. I turned to him and said "What was that about?" Jim said, "He wanted to why we were pulled off the road." Ï told him that we had a sick dog." ÖK", I said. Jim continued... "He also told me, "You took a piss, also". "Yes officer, I took a piss" Seriously he said piss, not pee, urinate, something more refined. "I think you are missing the point," Jim said. One more thing to add to the long list of things not to do on RT. 119 heading through Summersville, WV on an early late summer, Sunday morning.
Now at this point, you think what else can go wrong. It didn't take long. After the brief conversation between Jim and I, he exclaimed, "Did you step in dog shit?" I checked my flip flops. "No!", I reassured him. "I checked Hickory, picked up the mixed nuts that I dropped and got back into the car." So Jim started again with the gagging and "I am going to throw up!" "Can't you smell anything?" I am thinking, for the love of God, I am just happy you are not sitting in jail in Summersville, WV for peeing along side the road, while Hickory was throwing up foaming vomit.
Back to driving, for a very short time period, Jim starts again..."I am going to throw up, It smells like shit in here, which it did, but hey, I teach school, I am use to nasty smells. Jim jerks the car into a strip mall parking lot. He gets Hickory out, who instantly starts having diarrhea all over the parking lot. Jim starts gagging and coughing, grabs Addie and Hickory and starts walking across the parking lot to a grassy spot by the guard rails at the far end, leaving me to clean out the car.
I quickly find the source of the SMELL! Addie is also sick. Her side of the car has diarrhea. Thank God, for some reason, basically trying to prevent Hickory hair from embedding itself all over the car, which Jim also hates, I had triple layered the back seat area with sheets and towels. I quickly gather up the sheets and blanket, carefully rolling it all together and wandered across the parking lot to a dumpster to dispose of the mess, hoping that this is not against the law in Summersville, WV.
As I walk back to the car, I see Jim, yards away from the car, sitting on a guard rail with Hickory and Addie in tow, thinking to myself this is going to be a hell of a long drive to Florida. I continue straitening out the car and trying to decide what to do, when out of the corner of my eye, I see a Dollar Tree. Plastic table cloths, towels, 3 car air fresheners (new car scent), and one of those liquid ball smelly lavender containers, Jim a pack of gum later, we are all back in the car. TO BE CONTINUED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
