June 26, 2021 – They say the pandemic is over. I have to say, though, things are still mostly on Zoom in my world. I do think the pandemic was more over in Texas. I went out to eat while I was there, something that still is odd here. And I ate one thing consistently. Bar-b-que, a lot of it. The first was a bag of bar-b-que chips.

A little side-story. I actually went to Texas because it’s close to Oklahoma, and I found a new puppy in Oklahoma. My cover photo is the puppy, another female Sheltie that I named Rider. She’s a character. Here’s the background.

I had found the breeder and arranged to get a puppy from the breeder’s upcoming litter because all of her current litter were spoken for, at least all the females, and I prefer them. Then a crazy thing happened. About two weeks before I left for Texas, I was at a meeting, part on Zoom, part not. When I got home I had an email that I hadn’t seen, with a photo of this puppy, saying an older woman (she was 60) returned the puppy because the woman couldn’t “chase after the puppy.” That woman apparently had a hurt back. Mind you, that should have been a warning that there was something difficult about this puppy and not about the woman, but I took it as a sign that the puppy was returned because the puppy was supposed to go to me. In fact, about two weeks before, I was ready to put a deposit on another puppy of the litter, and right when I was about to do it, the breeder called and said someone had already put a deposit without the breeder knowing it. That was the reason to wait for the next litter of a different mom, or so I thought, but a puppy who’s returned? That had to be meant for me. So off to Texas, I went, of course, in tow with the rest of my animal family.

The day after I got there, my brother drove us to Oklahoma, to “Checotah”, a town where we arranged to meet the breeder-woman. Checotah is a small town where one of the roads that goes north out of Dallas meets Interstate-40 in the middle of Oklahoma. There’s a sign coming in on I-40 that says “Checotah, home of Carrie Underwood” or something to that effect. I would not have seen that sign if we didn’t take a wrong turn, but I loved that sign. A dog from the home of Carrie Underwood is a good sign too.

And another sign. A few miles before, on the northbound road, which is stoplights and small towns for a hundred and fifty miles (I think), there was a statue collection depicting cows on a historical cattle drive with a horse rider. Hence the name “Rider”. My puppy’s name is a tribute to the place she came from. That and all my Shelties have to have some variation of a name ending in “er”, but I had about three others I was deciding between. Oh, and don’t think, at all, that Oklahoma is some ugly fly-over place. Honestly, it’s a little known secret, certainly not one I knew, that Oklahoma is completely beautiful. The scenery consisted of small forested mountains, a river that became a lake meandering through those mountains, and ranch after ranch. And this girl doesn’t use the word ranch lightly. No, a ranch is not some rich person’s five acres. In fact, it’s not even some rich person’s 40 acres. Indeed, these were real ranches – acres and acres with the same fence, repeating the entire state long. Cows and horses everywhere. Pretty barns, fences and houses everywhere too. It was a gorgeous place.

My puppy? I’ll write more about her as the weeks go on. I do know why she was returned. I make jokes about it to her. She’s super energetic. The most energetic animal I’ve ever seen. Although as I write that, I realize she’s been sleeping for a couple of hours. Right where Jasper used to. She’s small, doesn’t look it in pictures, but she is. I doubt she’ll stay that way because her parents aren’t small. She’s affectionate. She’s strong. She’s brave. She has a very pointy nose, not that that has anything to do with anything. She likes to go places with me. And she likes bar-b-que, bar-b-que everything.

Those bar-b-que chips I talked about at the start of this article? That was the first taste of people food she had. She loved them. Then we stopped at Buckee’s in Texas (think 150 gas pumps and a giant store full of Texas stuff). I took her in the Buckee’s store. She had many fans. I left with a bar-b-que (chopped brisket) sandwich wrapped in a foil-paper wrapper. I couldn’t get the sandwich out without her trying to rip the paper. There’s a bar-b-que restaurant in Mineola, Texas (more on that place later). I took her there too, and she had their version of bar-b-que. She loved it all. I kept joking that I’ll have trouble feeding her in LA (bar-b-que is a bit paltry in LA), but fortunately, she still likes Puppy Chow dog food.

And as far as the pandemic, it’s as if I had a vacation from it. Or it ended. I’m not sure. All of these places I went had people everywhere. It looked so pre-pandemic, normal. Oklahoma. Texas. New Mexico and Arizona on the way. No masks. No rules. People just having fun. People living. I was a bit nervous when I got back to California about it all; California’s rules were still fully in place when I left. My first stop back was at a truck stop around Victorville on Interstate-15 coming south from I-40. I forgot my mask when I went inside to go to the bathroom. It was about 11:00 at night, and I had been driving for about 20 hours, so I just forgot about the California mask thing. But the person at the counter had no mask and was really welcoming. Other people had them, but she didn’t say anything to me.

Since then, it does seem less people have them here. The grocery store still seems to require it. Same with my mail place. Honestly, I don’t know what our rules are, but I will tell you, it’s probably just a matter of time because, everywhere else, the pandemic seems to be over.

Let’s celebrate. Journey, in their new song, thinks it’s worth celebrating too.

I just hope we all continue to be safe and well. And I hope to have a good and normal world for my new little girl. Thank you, little Rider for getting yourself returned and for being my new puppy! Now, leave the bunny alone. Please!