died8yearsago | Outside MHA; Sunday Afternoon [03/27].

Snowbound with a new puppy and no electricity.

Yeah, Rosa's weekend was great, how was yours?

Arlo 2 was restless as hell, dancing and prancing in front of the balcony windows, barking and wagging her tail when she looked eagerly at Rosa and barked again, pranced, put her paws up on the window, pranced some more.

"Trust me, girl," Rosa informed her. "You do not want to go out there."

...but then she started to whine. The barking, the prancing, Rosa could handle. But once that stupid little dog plopped her stupid little butt down and gave her the largest, saddest eyes ever and started to whimper...

"Goddammit."

Rosa got up, reaching for a sweater. And a hoodie. And a coat. "Okay," she said, then reaching for the leash, "but remember. I warned you."

So she and the dog were going outside, the dog practically ready to explode from excitement, and almost the exact moment they stepped outside, Arlo 2 made a break for the large embankment of snow that had collected right outside the door. And, just as quickly as she'd jumped into it, Arlo 2 learned a very important lesson that snow was a whole hell of a lot colder and wetter and softer than it initially looked.

And a puppy-shaped hole in the otherwise perfectly rounded snowbank was the funniest thing Rosa had seen in a while. She didn't even feel bad for laughing, until that first whimper and the sound of struggle came from deep within the hole. "Alright, alright, you big dummy," she said lovingly, as she waded into the bank to try to help her out. "Lesson learned."

Funny thing, though, about snow and wiggling puppies. They could even take a former ballerina and current sort-of ninja down with surprising ease, and a few seconds later, there was a Rosa-shaped hole in the snow as well and she had a newfound sympathy for how difficult it had been for Arlo 2 to get out.

Yup. Great weekend. At one point, Rosa just stopped trying to get up out of the snowbank for a moment and just stared at the sky, hating everything.

[[and, yeah, it's open. And she's out of the snow, but still hanging out freezing to death because her dog is a dork and still playing in it ]]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"I mean, they've been doing the Coney Island one for Special Olympics for a while now," Rosa said, "but it's probably different wherever you go. A bunch of places have them. I don't know, Google it. What do I look like, an Encyclopedia?"

Sure, it's not like she's the one who brought it up or anything.

Edited 2018-03-25 23:37 (UTC)

"You're the one who's done it before," Zack pointed out, reasonably. "Google is that search thing people get to on their phones, right?"

His phone? Also not from Earth.

... And yet it was a Panasonic.

Hell yeah, she'd done it before, even without weird immunity to the cold.

Still, Rosa snorted. "Yeah," she said, "Google's that search thing people get to on their phones. Also their computers. But computers are pieces of shit that never work right."

Because maybe all you did was hit them at the first sign of an issue, Rosa?

"I don't have one anyway," Zack replied with a shrug. "Well. There's one at the shelter, but the vets mostly work with that."

This was probably for the best. If Zack were to hit one, he'd put it through a wall.

"I'm sure they get just as frustrated with them, too," Rosa said, wondering if they had to deal with old, outdated programs and, ugh, spreadsheets.

By this time, Arlo 2 had decided she officially didn't like the snow at this moment and went trotting up to Rosa, plopping down and lifting her paw to nudge at her shin and get her attention. Not missing a beat, Rosa swept down and picked her up, scratching behind her ears while she happily panted away.

And then promptly sneezed in Rosa's face.

"Awesome."

And the snot froze immediately, too.

Zack grimaced a little at that. Oh boy. And here he was without so much as a tissue to offer her for that.

"Maybe get her in out of the cold," he offered. "And once we have power back, if she's still sneezing, bring her in to get her checked out." He paused, and then added, "Even if we don't have power back, if you're worried at all, get in touch with me and I can put one of the vets in contact with you. I'm in the phone book-- Last name Fair, and I live in the apartment upstairs from the music store if the phones are out."

Because there was no way he was going to let a puppy go sick for long if he could help it.

"I'm sure she'll be--" Rosa started, but before she even finished her sentence, Arlo 2 was squirming again, climbing up onto her shoulder, and making a very impressive jump toward the snowbank again.

Rose sighed. "--fine. But I'll definitely keep that in mind."

Arlo 2 was going to put them all to shame if Rosa ever brought her along to a Polar Bear.

Zack nodded and grinned faintly at the dog in the snow, as Girl trotted up to take a seat beside him, covered in snow herself.

"Okay, good. And if Girl's done here, I ought to be going, I suppose. Should I stick around until you get her back out of there just in case, or do you think you'll be okay?"

Rosa waved her hand. "I'll be fine," she said, rubbing her arms slightly, glancing over to where Arlo 2 rolled over on her back, wiggling her butt, inviting belly rubs that will totally have to wait because she was not going to encourage her or look like she totally loved giving belly rubs in front of other people. "She'll get tired eventually, and by then she'll have jumped through so much of the snow that it should be easy to pull her out."

Zack glanced toward the puppy for a moment as well, and then just grinned.

"Fair enough," he replied. "I think Girl helped tamp some of that down, too, so your job should at least be a little easier."

He nodded back at Rosa.

"It's good to see she's so happy, though. I'll leave you guys to it." He nodded down to his own dog, who happily pulled herself back up to her feet, and then he gave a little, casual wave to Rosa. "See you around, hey? Stay safe in this weather."

Rosa's lips pressed together slightly at the happy comment; of course she was happy! Sure, she wasn't the most conventional pet owner in the world, but she wasn't a monster over here. At least he didn't send spy squirrels. She would have known if there were spy squirrels...

...of course, deep down she knew that it was just coincidence, but she'd never pass on an opportunity to be angry about something.

Still, she nodded, lifting a hand marginally from where it rested on her folded arms. "Yeah," she said, "you too."

Which, by Rosa's standards, was practically obscene with friendliness.

Hey now, Zack had said so happy. He figured the pup would be fine. To see that she was practically incandescent with puppy joy was pretty darn great. Still, if there was something amiss at all with Rosa's reaction, he apparently missed it, giving her a sunshiney smile of his own before looking down at Girl, grinning at her, too, and then turning to head down the street, his dog trotting along merrily beside him.

Outside MHA; Sunday Afternoon [03/27].

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject