Already we’re at the mid-August weekend and it’s time for another Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap, our long-running weekend feature at readlarrypowelldotcom.
I’ve opened with a dog that isn’t asleep. That is Martha’s personal rescue project from 2009. You may recall this merely months-old apparently
homeless puppy was chasing some teens down busy Polk St. in mid-Oak Cliff. Martha, in one of those swell “going home from the office moods,” jumped out of her car and, with, the stern attitude of a James Bond villain, talked the strolling duo into letting her rescue the dog. And now, as she’s been for years, Wendy is a Texas Rangers fan — I’m pretty sure she’s a big backer of the rookie Wyatt Langford. She once declared, “That guy’s as quick as a hungry street dog at a Dallas hot dog stand.”
[LARRY NOTE: Wendy likes to wear my Rangers cap when I’ve worn it while the temp outside is about 105 and I’ve been sweating buckets into the hat. She never complains. “This hat is too soggy.” She does sort of look like a well-oiled baseball fan.]
BACK TO SLUMBERING…Thanks to my mechanicallymindedspouse Martha (she not only bought my desk but assembled it) I have a adjustable office desk that inspires me to write clever fiction and apologies and, if need, ransom notes. [LARRY ASIDE: There’s long been a story in writing that a famous writer of the ‘30s was asked, “What’s
the best way to make money writing?” and he quickly replied, “Ransom notes.” Back to the slumberers.]
I was typing while movin’ to some number on a Serious, er, Sirius channel with long-ago hit music, and suddenly I did a spin and lost my balance but that allowed me to see Porche Noel snoozing on her bed behind my empty chair. I hope this photo reproduces well because I think it’s important to show that (a) she loves the fake flower I brought her for her collar a few weeks ago and (b) that little darlin’s eyelashes are as wonderfully white now as they were the 2009 winter day she showed up on the front porch of our house in Dallas. She’s about 20 pounds heavier than she was that day — she’d been starved, abused and “set free” by some BLEEP. Nowadays, she’s my Adorable Office Dog
I’m going to close this edition with a segment that I’ll call
Runnin’ Low On Gas
I’d never seen anything like this first photo before. I pulled into a discount gas station just east of downtown Cowtown and would have rolled to my usual spot to get some under-$3 gasoline. But, there was a guy already parked there, so to speak. I almost thought that he’d seen regular gas for under three bucks and passed out from shock.
But, clearly he was napping at the gas pump — that pump was out of service, so he may have had an agreement with management to be the blockade that keeps people from rolling up and getting angry because “this pump don’t work!”
At first, I thought someone had passed out, but, nope, upon further investigation I realized the napper had created some pillows out of a shirt and some bags and was quite comfortable napping on the padded cement. I thought of waking the guy — but, then, he was so darned comfortable even if the thermometer was zipping toward the high-90s. It occurred to me also that he may have been holding the spot for a buddy so they could get the under $ gasoline when the pump was working again. Honestly, finding cheap gas is not as easy as finding free dogs in the Metro sprawl.
Once my car’s tank was full, I carefully drove around the slumbering gentleman. Might have said a little prayer for this clearly comfortable fellow. May his future be better than he expects and may he never again nap at the gas pump — unless he finds inner comfort next to the high-octane.
Thus, we’ll close this Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap edition with a photograph I snapped of our wonder big ol’ Border Collie/Chocolate Lab mix, the adorable dog with the watchdog bark, Dudley the Angel.
That’s him, out-like-a-light on the cool boards of our dining room floor. He’s such a darling dog. He and the cats
have conversations and he and the other dogs have lecture programs for humans. Each one starts with “We
believe it is time for you to feed us so we can more efficiently instruct you and keep the household moving along nicely.” That's a fully-awakened Dudley after a polite lecture on the household's need for cats and dogs.
Loving dogs and cats is one of the great privileges of being a human. In the dialect of a Northeast Texas deacon from my childhood, “Can ah git uh hay-men.” Sometimes it’s pronounced “a-men” in your more progressive canine & cat congregations.
[PLEASE SEND photos of your beloved sleeping dogs, napping cats and slumbering acquaintances to [email protected] and we’ll highlight them in our weekend feature Let Sleeping Dogs Lie & Napping Cats Nap. It’s a good time to celebrate the beings that give us love and helps us be better people. May be all have reasons to laugh and enjoy life off the campaign trails.]
[LARRY NOTE: That is our Senior Office Cat William Powell, a careful editor and a dynamic supporter of proper English which he learned as a kitten while attending a major university that prefers not to be identified due to a courtroom discussion over the fees William charged for advising English majors, William won a lawduit against a professor who claimed to be "The Cat's Meow" but could never produce the evidence. It was in all the papers. You remember newspapers, right?]
