BE THE NOODLE

 BINGO

This is Bingo. He's a Parson's Russell Terrier (Think Jack Russell Terrier) and he's an old fart.

He's a rescue dog from the Omaha, Nebraska Humane Society. He's been an amazing companion for me during my travels around the Midwest. At 9-years old, I thought being in the truck might be rough on him, but other than the usual learning curve where missteps are often made, he's been a great dog.

The first misstep came when I left the windows cracked about 8 inches when I went into Walmart for a little shopping. I'd just reached the Deli counter when my phone started ringing. The woman on the phone asked if I had a dog named Bingo. I said yes and she proceeded to tell me she found him wandering the parking lot and called the number on his collar.

OMG! Trucks are 13'6" tall! The windows were up about the 10-foot mark. What the hell?!

I ran outside and met up with the woman who had kindly rescued my rescue dog. He had a cut on his inner thigh, but otherwise seemed okay. I let out a sigh of relief and took him back to the truck. Rolling up the windows a few inches prevented a repeat. Either that or he was being cautious.

The second misstep came when the little booger jumped out the window a second time and I found out by the jingling of the tags on his collar. Ugh! The little beast was going to give me a heart attack!

The third misstep came when I was at a shipper. I went to the rear of the trailer to reset the tandems (drivers call it sliding the tandems) and just turned to walk to the front when I saw a Mighty Dog commercial in real life. Leaping from the driver's window like he was going to land in a lake off a dock, he looked beautiful. Strong and amazing.

In slow motion, I watched as he landed and kind of fell/rolled. He immediately stood back up. My heart died a little when he raised his hind leg and just stood there for a minute. I rushed to him, picked him up, and scolded him.

"You're an old man! Are you TRYING to break a hip?"

He appeared ashamed and chastened as I searched for broken bones. After a couple of hours, he was walking mostly normally, but he wasn't thrilled with me when I would move his leg around.

Needless to say, this was the last of the little guy's flying attempts. I think it hurt just a little too much to risk again.

I've had a few hard-braking events when he was in the passenger seat. Lying or sitting on a blanket doesn't prevent a fast slide to the floorboards. Poor guy. He started spending more time in the sleeper bunk after that.

I swear he's got a bladder of steel! That dog holds his pee like nothing I've ever seen. There's many days when we're running around and literally can't stop or we'll be late to the customer. He comes up and looks at me, I apologize, and he goes back to the sleeper.

Only twice has he had bathroom accidents and that was my fault. As bad as it is, a lot of times he gets the same food I get. Unfortunately, his tolerance for truckstop food is less than mine. I learned my lesson and moderated his quantities. I don't know if it's okay for dogs, but a couple episodes of diarrhea on a speed run and I broke out the anti-diarrheal meds. One pill and a trip to the grass and he's ready to go back to bed.

He did get an episode of vomiting due to some bad food he found and ate before I could stop him, but I just cleaned up the mess and cuddled him a little extra. Nobody likes being scolded for something they can't control.

From the very beginning, I knew I could trust this dog. I picked him up and he just melted. He flopped onto his back like a cooked noodle and let me love on him. No matter how I held him, he just trusted in me to keep him from falling over on his head. I thought this was pretty amazing...until I watched him sleep. Somehow he always ends up on his back, neck stretched out, little legs flopped out like a understuffed doll. At least he's fixed and I don't have to look at his balls.

He's been friendly or willing to be friendly to any person who meets him, but dogs? Not so much. He thinks he's bigger and badder than everybody else. If he wasn't trying to pick a fight, I'd think it was cute. We stay away from other people walking their dogs.

I just wanted to introduce the little guy. He keeps me company, entertained, and helps me get some walking in. Unfortunately, that's in ANY WEATHER.

Thanks for being here,

Renae - The Truck Driving Woman