The Dog and his Hippie

 

by Pa Rock

Friend of Animals

As I was leaving the store yesterday pushing a cart of groceries toward my car, I came across a young man (forty-something or perhaps fifty) of the hippie persuasion who had just gotten off his adult tricycle and was headed into the store.  He had parked his contrivance in the narrow lane for carts that had a sign posted saying “No Parking.”  The fellow was supporting a broad smile and was overtly friendly, saying to me, a total stranger, as we passed one another, “Hello.  How are you this fine day?”  He smelled of weed, and I assumed that he had just ridden into town on a munchies run and had been expanding his consciousness as he peddled.
 
The big trike had a large wire basket behind the seat with a custom-fitted cushion on which a small passenger could sit.  In this case the passenger was a brown-with-black-spots mutt who smiled at me as I walked by pushing the grocery cart.  The dog looked very chill, and since he had been seated behind the man peddling the trike, I reasoned that he was probably as high as his hippie, or at least headed in that direction.  The dog and I acknowledged one another and then I proceeded on to my car to deposit the groceries.
 
After returning the cart a couple of minutes later, I again walked past the dog who was still waiting patiently in his basket while his hippie was inside the store undoubtedly sharing witticisms and joy with the other shoppers.  The small dog again smiled up at me as he sat listening to a long, narrow sound system that was connected vertically to the trike’s steering column.   The music was a jazzy little number by the “Stray Cats.”
 
When I got home, Alexa and I decided that “Stray Cats” was the perfect choice for our afternoon’s entertainment while I did laundry and got caught up from my two-week adventure out west.    The dog and his hippie had good taste in music!