Going For A Ride

I took him for a ride today. The days of bounding in and out of vehicles a faded memory. Insecure, I convinced him to let me place his two front feet on the bumper while together we floundered a pair of ailing back legs in. A challenging thirty seconds but it was worth the struggle. The youthful expression, I will always remember, crept into the corners of his face and his tail matched our heart beats. We were going for a ride.

A short drive later, I climbed in the backseat of my car with Mr Blue Eyes and we waited in the school parking lot for our Brown Eyed Girl to exit her school. There he was. Sitting up, alertly looking out the window. Unsure of the destination or task before us. But, we were going for a ride.

We have been on many, many car rides together, he and I. Our very fist ride, we bumped cross country from Iowa to Colorado with one of my oldest friends. That first trip would be just the first of many times we would drive that rout together in pursuit of instinct and feathers.  

The best drives we ever took together were over the summer of 2006. That was the summer I worked training horses. He was my barn buddy, my co-pilot in his daddy's shiny new Dodge. Early mornings he looked out the passenger window ready to start the day and by late afternoons he rested his head on the center console while I stroked his ears and we listened to country music all the way home.

We have traveled thousands of miles together.
Most of which I know I took for granted.
None of which he did.
I know he looked forward to each and every one.
I know that neither one of us will look forward to the day we take those last 10.