Saturday, April 15, 2006

Pico's Puky Peccadilloes

Some friends wanted to go hiking and asked us for suggestions on Friday night. So Nanu and I told them about The Garden of the Gods – a magical place we’d visited about a month ago. A plan was made to go there Saturday and we promised we’d come along.

Since someone else was driving, Nanu and I decided to take Pico with us in the truck. It was supposed to be his first long car ride ever – almost 2 hours by road. On the way we got hungry and stopped at Dairy Queen and had sandwiches, cokes and some ice-cream. Unable to finish my ice-cream, I offered some to Pico, who happily ate it up. Nanu had some french fries left over and we gave about three pieces to our resident glutton – Pico.

About an hour into the journey, Pico started licking the half empty can of coke I was holding in my hand. Against my better judgment I let him have a few sips. Pico actually seemed to like coke and all of us laughed about it.

Almost at our destination, I suddenly felt a huge wet patch spreading at an alarming rate on my lap. I looked down and almost died.

Pico had puked right into my lap.

There was so much puke, I almost felt like a puke-queen. It was unbelievable how much gooey, liquidy, yucky greenish-yellow stuff Pico had managed to project out of his stomach and into my waiting lap. There were even whole chunks of puppy food - that he had obviously swallowed without chewing - sticking to my waist and thighs. I screamed and half stood up in the truck in total horror. It was so unreal.

A combination of motion sickness, french fries, ice-cream, coke and a heavy doggy breakfast before we left home had obviously been too much for him to handle.

We had to stop at Bill’s place and I washed up from an outdoor tap in the garden. Nanu had to borrow tissues from Mr. L, who lives down the road and mop up the seats and floor of the truck, which were also covered in dog vomit.

Since I had no change of clothes, and we’d just spent 2 hours on the road getting to this place, I ended up hiking in the Garden of the Gods, with a completely wet lower body. Hilarious!

Luckily there was plenty of sunshine and I dried off pretty soon. But I still had suspicious yellow patches on my khaki pants.

The rest of the evening was great. We saw some fantastic rock formations in the Garden of the Gods, had some good conversation and wine with Bill, while we sat by his five acre pond and even got to see his calico – a shy little fur-ball of a cat aptly named ‘Sweetie’.

But it was a relief to get back home and get out of those vomit-filled clothes. I had the longest shower ever and made sure I smelled like me again.

The experiences I go through with my dog are just unbelievable. They border on the darkly comic and surreal. But strangely enough, I can’t seem to stop loving him.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

What...no pictures of the "excitement?" :) Sorry to hear the outing was so eventful.

Anonymous said...

must have been a nightmare.poor u!am sure pico felt terrible 2.good 2 know u r taking it in the right spirit.now u know how i felt when u puked all over me while we were travelling 2 mumbai-u were 5 yrs old and so adorable i didnt have the heart 2 scold u.it happens to all of us and we look back and have a good laugh about it.

PJ said...

Yeah Abby, poor me!
Shree, Spring is indeed here and its so beautiful outside.
Elizabeth, we forgot to take our camera on the trip - so I just used old pictures I had of the Garden of the Gods, from a previous trip! Too bad huh? :)
Mom! You think Pico is your avenging angel making reparations for all the trouble I caused you in my childhood? Ha ha.