At 9:30 am on July 1st I was sitting on a bench at the dog park, my dog Red at my side. My electronics, important files and some clothes were in my car. For some reason this included a black floor length dress with deep v-neck in back and front and a round rhinestone pin. Why I thought I needed to take that dress I will never know, because I had $17 in my bank account, no matching shoes and we were homeless.
At least I had half a large bag of dog food.
If it was just me, it wouldn’t have bothered me much. You don’t freeze to death in Arizona in the summer and it wasn’t like I couldn’t afford to lose a few pounds. Unfortunately it wasn’t just me and the temperature was inching up into the 100s. And it was the start of a four day weekend.
When you have someone from whom you expect obedience and loyalty, you have an absolute responsibility to care and provide for that someone. Even, or maybe especially, if that someone is an animal.
So is this the worst thing that ever happened to me? Actually it ended up being one of the luckiest days of my life. On one level I think I knew that even while I was feeling incredibly stressed and I was proved right.
The question running around and around in my mind was where could I possibly go to keep Red cool. Peter’s house was out of the question when his cats, Pookah and the Holy Tara, completely freaked the night we visited and stayed out on the patio. Asking friends to put me up when a dog is part of the equation seemed totally out of line.
As I sat there my phone pinged, informing me that I had something on my calendar. It was a reminder that the first drawing class that my friend Carol was holding at her house was in 15 minutes. On a hunch, I called Carol and asked if Red could come with me to class. At least we would have a couple of hours of air conditioning.
Carol was very welcoming and Red was really good. Her husband Jerry quickly overcame Red’s protectiveness (“don’t come near my mom!) and after lunch they offered to let me stay for a few days. Jerry makes an excellent lunch.
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