Reply #35: Damn....too many stories.....I need a video camera first!

[A HERETIC I AM]

Before I get a new pup, I'm getting a camera, as one thing I so terribly regret not having, is videos of Mr. BB.

Speaking of "Riding Shotgun, you probably have seen this pic;

I call that "The Elegant Tourist".

He's riding in the passenger seat of one of the trucks I drove, I think it was when I was working for GMC Truck Motorsports, on the NHRA circuit, around the latter part of 1997.

Here he is sitting on the Harley I had when I got him;


That pic was taken at Laguna Seca Raceway, in Monterey, CA at the last race of the 1996 Indy Car Season. He was just over a year old. The registration ladies (I had to see them every race weekend to arrange for parking passes and guest credentials) loved him and made him his own "Annual Hard Card" credential. If you look close, you can see it clipped to his collar. He sat for a photo, the card was made up and laminated! His title was "Team Member"!

He would ride with me on that scoot, laying across my lap with his head to the left. I had rigged a harness that secured him to me, using a full neck harness and another collar I fitted around his waist, then a short lead I slipped through my belt.

Anyway, from early on, regardless if he was in a car, in the truck or on the bike, he would always bark and bite at vehicles going the other way. It got to the point that if he was asleep in the sleeper and I took an exit off the freeway onto a two lane, he would be up, wide awake and want up on my lap with his head out the window so he could get the fuckin' cars! He even learned what a weigh station meant and what they looked like, cause when I slowed down for one of those, he would look up, see it was a scale house and go back to sleep! - No cars to bark at!

But a 2 lane road....well....they were FUN!

He would lean waaaaay out forward when he saw one coming and as it flashed by, he would bark at it and snap at it, as if he might just catch it! It was like he was pissed that they had the temerity to go the other way! I think what got him started on all this was the compression of the air into our vehicle and the accompanying "WHUMP" of sound as a car passes, you know?

After a while, the activity would slowly ramp down to the point he would just sort of...."clomp" at the car with his mouth as it went by. Sort of..."Well, I can't catch you, but if I could, this is what I'd do!"


He did EXACTLY the same thing when he rode on the bike. I had to make sure he was tight to my belt, as I was afraid he would leap off!


So much personality, so much fun to be around, so much of a zest for life and for fun in such a small package.

I think they're all like that, to one degree or another.


Yes. Soon. I will have another soon. I've just now gotten my 2nd paycheck with this new firm so I'll need a month or 2 to catch up all my bills and then another to save for the pup, but soon.


Very soon.

I can't wait!