Forest’s First Car Wash

Last night, Nick, Forest and I went over to a friend’s house to watch the UFC fights.  As grown men pummeled each other for our entertainment, some kids in the neighborhood decided to celebrate Halloween a little early this year and egg our cars. My car was the only one on the street, so it took the brunt of the attack and nicely shielded the other cars parked in the driveway. Whatever, I was young once (though I don’t recall ever egging anything) and the incident failed to put a damper on our fight night, although at one point I did have to pull broken eggshells out of Forest’s mouth. Apparently puppies like eggs.

It wasn’t until the brawls were over and we wanted to head home that we faced a dilemma. We didn’t think eggs could hurt my car’s paint, but I didn’t want gooey egg guts sitting on my car all night. It wasn’t completely covered in eggs, but there were enough to discourage us from cleaning it by hand. We thought about dropping Forest off at home, but that was in the opposite direction of town. So that’s how at we ended up driving around at midnight in search of a car wash that was still open.

Luckily, we found one at a gas station a few minutes away from our friend’s neighborhood.  It was a small, automatic car wash where you just park and a big cleaning machine paces back and forth beside your car. I expected Forest to freak out a little, maybe make some noise or at least tremble, but the car wash didn’t faze him a bit. The puppy just sat in the backseat and watched the machine whirl around us. 

Unfortunately, the ghetto car wash didn’t remove a single eggshell crumb off my car. In fact, the heat from dryers at the end of the wash made the situation worse by fusing the yolky mess to my car. So at 12:30 am, Nick and I attempted to clean the rest off using the gas station’s windshield cleaner sticks. Forest, the same dog who ignored loud machinery that shook the car, whined and barked because we left him alone for 10 minutes while we stood a foot away. That puppy is just weird sometimes.

Forest’s First Car Wash

Whoops

We had a little incident today. After picking Forest up from doggy day-care, I made the slow journey home through rush hour traffic. About half way back to the house, the car in front of me suddenly braked, forcing me to also slam rudely on my brakes. I stopped without hitting anyone, but heard a whoosh from the backseat. I turned around (as I was safely stopped at this point) and found Forest on the floor. Yep, the puppy had slid right off the backseat. To make matters worse, the passenger seat was positioned pretty far back, so Forest was kinda stuck behind it. Traffic started moving again so I couldn't help the wedged puppy, who finally managed to crawl back up onto the seat. The poor doggy hid in the corner, shaking with fear, for the rest of the ride home.

So now I'm contemplating buying a dog seatbelt or restraint. Recently a local car accident made headlines because the car flipped a few times and a doggy passenger was ejected. The hurt puppy ran away from the accident and wasn't found for a few days. I had thought about buying something for Forest then, but Nick reasoned that such an accident was unlikely to occur to us so the purchase was unnecessary. But after today's scare, I think I'm going to have to seriously consider it…

Whoops

"Where my humans at?"

Forest is basically catatonic while riding in a car. He'll just lie against the back seat and watch the driver or fall asleep. The puppy doesn't stand up or look out the window or bark at anything. Every once in awhile Forest will change the direction in which he's laying but that's about it.

However, this dog has control issues that pop up when the car is parked and no longer in motion. As Nick puts it, Forest always wants to know where his humans are. If Nick and I are both in the car and just one of us gets out (like at a gas station or to run into a store real quick) Forest freaks out. He couldn't care less that one parent is still in the car, he wants to know where the hell the other person is. Forest will whimper, pace back and forth on the seat and jump up on the car door to look out the window. Sometimes he barks a little.

Even when he can see the other person is like a foot away pumping gas, Forest doesn't calm down until that person is back in the car. Kind of makes the parent who's still in the car and totally being ignored feel a tad worthless. Once I climbed into the backseat to keep him company but nope, he wanted to know where the fuck Nick was. So new strategy, next time he starts pining away for the missing parent, I'm going to ignore him. Take that puppy dog! 

(I'm fully aware that this will only last 20 seconds before my heart melts and I climb over car seats to comfort my sad puppy but I will attempt it nonetheless).

"Where my humans at?"