All hail the Queen

I got home from work tonight and there was Kirby's face in the window...making sure I come in the house instead of running away. No matter what kind of crappy day I may have had, seeing that furry face in the window just makes me smile. I came in and we had our usual conversation. How was your day...did you lick any of the cats....were they nice to you about it...that kind of thing. All 3 of our cats have Kirby under their kitty mind control, by the way. It's a good thing, really. They're all quite a bit smaller than she is - especially Hemi, who has always been a tiny little girl and weighs in at 6 pounds. Kirby loves them all dearly - even Sarah, who is extremely anti-social to any dog and looks at Kirby with complete and utter disdain. Kirby takes it all in stride, happy to be part of the group.

Anyway, just after dinner Kirby was very angsty. Very hyper. She kept wanting to chew on toys that weren't meant for chewing. So I put my shoes on, grabbed my keys and stuff, and took Miss Kirby for a drive. I figured she needed something to chew on, so I took her to a local pet store. Not her favorite pet store, but her FAVORITE store is farther away and I wasn't up to it.

There's always a traffic jam on the street leading to this pet store. It's a good 15 minute wait just to get through the light. Understand, I drive a Hyundai Accent. It's a little 4 door sedan. Kirby now takes up the entire back seat. When she sits up, her muzzle hangs above the head rest on the front seat and her forehead brushes against the ceiling. I'm sure it's quite a sight. I've been teased by the other doggy Moms and Dads at the dog park a lot about it, actually. It does look pretty funny. So we're stopped in traffic and Kirby stands up back there to get a better look at something and suddenly her tail is slapping me across the back of my head.

I turn to look and there is a Cadillac Escalade full of women and teenagers waving at her and smiling at me. I rolled the window down and they asked me a bunch of questions about her. I asked them if they wanted to trade cars with me so that Kirby could have more room. :-) We were all laughing with each other. We've occassionally gotten strange looks from passersby before, but I've never had a car full of people do that before. It was quite an experience. And Kirby ate it all up. She loved it.

I pulled the car into the pet store lot and took Kirby inside. I looked for a toy that she could really chew on, but I didn't find anything that either of us liked. I picked out some pig ears for her and we went to the checkout. As I'm walking up to the front of the store, a group of 4 teenagers comes in looking for us. They had seen Kirby in the store and stopped, parked, and came in to meet her. They actually got down on the floor with her, so she had one at each end and one at each side. She got head rubs and belly rubs and toe rubs galore.

Finally, we get to the registers. I'm talking to a customer and a pet store employee and I hear a big THUD. Kirby has plopped her giant toes up on the "cookie bar" and is helping herself to the dog cookies. I give the command, "Kirby! Leave it!" and she gets right down, bless her soul. She may not always remember her manners but she does remember her training at puppy school.

Of course, everyone laughed...including the pet store employees, who promptly asked if she could have a cookie and then started feeding them to her like gum drops. I told them to at least make her sit so that she had to do something to earn them. She continued to get visitors at the front counters. Anyone who came in to the store had to make a bee line for the furry cow with the big brown eyes. And she's just sitting there, wagging her tale, soaking up every minute of it.

I realized...Kirby is like Brangelina, the Jonas Brothers, and that weird look'in kid from the Twilight movie...all rolled up into one. Anywhere we go with her, it's like she's a celebrity...and we're her staff. We're her entourage. Kirby gets the royal treatment wherever she goes. People stop to look at her, they pull over in some cases. :-) They go out of their way for the chance to touch her. They're in awe of her. It's amazing the attention she gets from people...it's like she's a queen. All hail Queen Kirby, ruler of the fur persons. I feel lucky to live in the shadow of her presence. :-)

Right now, the Queen is resting in her royal living room...on the royal couch cushions, tired from her escapades this evening. If I go to the landing and look down, I can see a big tangly jumble of giant toes just hanging off the edge of the couch. And she's sleeping with her tongue out again. Like she's giving the whole world a raspberry. Such a life.

All hail the Queen!