BuggyBath

Sailor here. And Zoe.

Today, Mom opened the back of the station wagon and told both Zoe and me to Hop In. "We are going to do something really fun," she said. "Will we get wet?" I asked, by now wise to Mom's ideas of Have Fun. She smiled and gave me a funny look and said, "Oh, I hope not."

We rode to the Vet's office and went around the corner. Mom parked in this huge tunnel. It smelled like water. It smelled like soap. "Is this an outdoor DogWash?" I asked. "Not exactly, Sailor," Mom answered. "It is a Buggy Bath. I'm going to wash the car and you two are going to supervise."

Mom is big on do-it-herself projects. I really didn't think she could lift the car up into a bathtub, but it turned out that she didn't have to. The water came to her! She fed the Hungry Box with metal discs and water started to hiss and spit. No cats here, I thought. Zoe disagreed.

Mom sprayed the car. I woofed and barked at the noise. Zoe ran around as best she could in such a cramped situation and looked for cats. Mom then brushed the car sides, top and windows. I barked and barked at the furry thing trying to get into the car. Zoe tried to catch it. I was dry. Zoe was dry. Mom was mostly dry but her sleeves got wet up to her armpits.

Mom has extremely good eyesight. (She even has eyes on the back on her head and can see Zoe start to get in trouble even before Zo-Zo makes a move. Mom is very, very quick at Leave It! I, however, never get in trouble.) Just as Mom started to rinse us off, the wind kicked up. Mom's eyes in the back of her head can even see the wind. I mean, how does she know it kicked unless she can see it? I was impressed. Zoe was oblivious.

Anyway, the wind kicked up and blew water all over Mom. She said that rinsing us was easy as long as she kept to weather of us, but when she went to leeward, things got tricky. Zoe started to lick the windows. I on the other paw woofed a little more and waited to see what Mom would do next.

Nothing. She did nothing. The Hungry Box started to beep and the water stopped. Mom just stood there. She grumbled. She mumbled. She pulled a five dollar bill out of her pocket and went to another metal box which ate her money. Then with a clang, a bunch of metal discs came sailing out. Mom laughed, saying that the odds here were much better than at Las Vegas. (Huh?)

She started the rinse again. Zoe licked the windows. I woofed. Zoe licked. Mom rinsed. The machine beeped. The water stopped. Oh, brother, I thought. We are going to be here all day.

But then Mom said we were all done and she got back in the car and told us to lie down. I lay down. Zoe sproinged around all over me. Mom started the car and told Zoe, "Hang on!" Now, I know what Hang On means. It means drop! If you don't drop when she says Hang On, there's no telling where you might end up. Zoe didn't drop. Mom drove very, very slowly out of the tunnel and POW! slammed on her brakes. Zoe dropped. Zoe stayed dropped all the way home. That is how Mom trained me to drop, I told Zoe. Zoe was impressed.

So, now I know what the Buggy Bath is. We didn't wash insects, we washed the car. Zoe and I stayed dry. Mom got wet. And Zoe learned to drop.

So with all that hissing and spitting and water, how come there are still nose prints all over the windows? Mom says that that is another project for another day.

Sailor, smug because he didn't have to have a bath, and Zoe, oblivious