Are We Having Fun Yet?

Just file this one under, "But it seemed like such a good idea at the time." Please... It's the story of my life. They might as well go ahead and engrave it on my tombstone now.

So, I thought I'd be all mom-like and fun and take the stupid dog in the car with me to pick up Moody Teen at the bus stop. She was outside anyway, and she always makes Moody so happy (and he needs all the help he can get these days!). She doesn't normally ride in the car, well, because I never take her anywhere. And it's no secret that she has major mental health issues, but how disastrous could a quick trip to the bus stop be?

She happily jumped in the car without any coaxing from me. However, the minute she was in the driver's seat, she started to freak out (red flag #1 that I stupidly ignored). Suddenly, she grew very still and refused to budge. I tried to shove her over to the console, but she started to growl every time I touched her (nice. ignored red flag #2). So, since I was in a hurry, I just sat down with her wedged in between me and the seat. I was basically 2 inches from the steering wheel. Meanwhile, she started maniacally shaking. And shedding. It was like that pathetic little Charlie Brown Christmas tree, where all the pine needles explode off the tree at once (obviously red flag #3, but at this point, I was fully entrenched in the mission).

I pulled up to the bus stop and yanked her into my lap. She was all shaky and weird and started yawning repeatedly. Seriously. So she was yawning and yawning, and shaking and shedding, and I was starting to panic a little bit. Has anyone ever heard of an animal actually being possessed? I mean, I know, intellectually, that the chances of the dog being possessed are fairly slim, but I am really bad about buying into all that Armageddon hype, and what better way to begin the final battle of Good vs Evil, than to have the Devil steal the souls of all the dogs on Earth? 

So I started to look around the street for other dogs, to see if they were acting suspicious, but no such luck. Well, then Pepper started to gag. And what's even better than gagging? That's right! Puking! I managed to push her head over to the console so everything was contained (I had perfected that technique once before when driving in the car with my other dog. Do I just never learn?). 

At this point, the bus had arrived, and Moody comes strolling up to the car, completely confused. The plan had totally backfired and I just wanted to get home to check the news for swarms of locusts or blood in the rivers. 

We all made it home alive and of course the minute she was back on solid ground, Pepper returned to normal. At least I accomplished my original goal of making Moody Teen happy. He thought the whole thing was hilarious... Until I sent him back out to clean the car!