Pets: Mandy's Day Out Every day I hope for a ride in the car The whole back seat Belongs to me Kennel with a cushion Blanket on the seat And they always bring my food He drives They talk I sleep What could be better? Most of the time I wait in the car While they go away They always talk about me Before they go Will she be okay? Is it too hot today? Then they fiddle with windows Blankets for shade Water bowl I feel very important Yesterday We went to Fort Morgan In Alabama I am a traveling dog And have been more places Than she has But not as many as him When we got to the gate The nice lady said The dog can go in everywhere Have a nice day Oh boy! They left and came right back She said we should have a snack Before we go And I was very very good So I got a little bit of turkey I got to ride in my stroller Which is one of my favorite Things to do When I'm on the ground I see a lot of the ground And there are wonderful smells Everywhere But in the stroller I can see forever There was a bouncy brick road And a dark tunnel Smelling deliciously damp Lots and lots of Warm fresh grass inside It would have been nice To run around Look for squirrels Sometimes there are cats Where you don't expect them But my knee hurts a lot And my back gets tired So I'm happy to ride She pushed He went somewhere else I looked at everything Listened to people talk Everyone smiles When they see me Riding Sometimes they say I'm spoiled But she always makes sure they know I'm just too old to walk far Then they make a fuss Pet my head We met two ladies With sticks They were both nice One said she was a dog lady She had six a while ago Four terriers And a spaniel and a staffy But now she just has four All rescues She scratched my head Said nice things about me We saw brick walls With rooms behind People talking in there Sounded muffled Like being in a blanket Concrete rooms Echo echo echo Kids were playing Making noise Those rooms were fun But I liked the bricks more They sit more easily In my ears Moss and mold grows In corners where it's damp But in the sun The walls are clean I looked and looked It was the same everywhere So I'm pretty sure that's right There was a shiny lock Brand-new and imposing On an old old door She took pictures and said to me Andrea will like this won't she And I thought about the lady With four terriers She does that Talks to me While she clicks the shutter Tells me what she sees Sometimes I don't understand But the part about the light I don't know why she bothers Because I already know It's warm I understand warm We sat on a step In the sun Two big dogs Came through an old door One at a time to say hello The first one felt like a friend Although you never know It pays to be cautious He smelled right, though And didn't stay too long I was getting tired But we went back outside And there was a beach! They know how much I like the beach So I got down Sniffed around So many things to explore And the sand is soft It makes me sneeze Sand gets in my nose And it's hard to breathe It's because I'm built So close to the ground I showed him my nose He cleaned it off for me Put me up on a stone dock Ahhhhh ... So warm on my belly I could have stayed there All afternoon But we went back to the car Drink of water The cushion in my kennel Is warm Dry Smells right He drove They talked I slept All the way home ............. The March challenge topic in the Writer's Gallery was PETS. I hadn't been struck by any bolts of lightning on the subject, and then, out of the blue, there it was. I posted a picture earlier today and mentioned Mandy, and Andrea asked if Mandy might write a poem about her aesthetic experiences. Bless you, my friend ... that was all the inspiration I needed. Bill took the picture I used as cover art here. Those of you who saw my previous post and who have excellent spatial ability will notice we're sitting in my picture. I don't remember what Mandy and I were talking about at the time, but that was the door the big dogs came through. This is a serendipitous photograph. When I read the poem to Bill, he told me he had taken a couple of shots of Mandy and I while we were at Fort Morgan. This was one of them. He didn't realize it was the same place, because he hadn't seen my photograph yet. I'm pretty sure Mandy arranged the entire thing. :P