And a Latte for my Dog, Please!

Three young women were running a quaint coffee shop and I thought to my self, "what are my chances?”

NO! That’s not what I meant… I’m a happily married man, after all!

(Insert Jennifer here saying to me, “You’re killing me Smalls!”

Yesterday I was up at 5:30 and had to get Barracuda over to Deer Park for her spay. it is about an hour and fifteen minutes away… in good weather. There is a mountain pass between us and this town that has some very good vets.

I had just gotten the car started when it started to snow.

And OH, did it snow!

Though I was late for her scheduled drop off due to the weather, they were fine with it and appeared to understand.

So, it was snowing.

The roads and everything are becoming white very quickly as we have only had rain since early November. Yeti and i are in the car. We cannot drive home. Too dangerous.

Deer Park is the next town to the north if you live in Spokane, so we could just hang out in the city. Maybe go guitar shopping.

I didn’t want the city setting. I wanted to remain in the smaller town.

So, I went to find a coffee shop thinking this might be a good way to pass the time while Yeti and I await the 3:30 pm “Your dog is ready to be picked up” call.

There are about a dozen coffee shops in the small town of Deer Park. Coffee is a religion here in the Northwest.

Luckily, I had brought my computer and my book is nearing its completion.

Hmm…A day of writing.

A quaint coffee shop with a Christmas tree still set up.

Great coffee.

Snow falling. outside.

Who could ask anything more?

Oops, there was one issue with this Currier & Ives dream setting.

I still had Yeti to consider.

Oh, I could leave her in the car,

lonely and cold,

snow covering the car so that she is forgotten and neglected…

I could do that… right?

Dis-irregardless (as my dad used to say), I went into “Rozy’s Hot Shotz” to order a 24 ounce latte with raspberry and vanilla cream and a sweet roll. I spied a table in the corner where I can plug in my computer. My chair will face a large picture window facing the street and the beautiful falling snow.

I sat there…

thinking…

There were three young ladies who work this coffee shop. And I think to myself, what are my chances?”

So, I went to the gal who filled my order and I said, “I know this is a likely “No”, buuuuuut…”

She smiled and said, “Yeah?” batting her baby blues at me (that last part I made up).

“I have a dog out in the car and I was wondering…”

She smiled even brighter and replied, “We LOVE dogs here. So long as she is well behaved, we would LOVE to have her!”

I found myself blinking at her, not sure I heard her right.

“Really?” I finally said.

Before she could answer that, I rushed out the door.

I decided this was a verbal agreement worthy of the courtroom.

I opened the car,

I got Yeti,

and brought her into Rozy’s Hot Shotz.

And when I got to my corner table…

There was my coffee…

There was my sweet roll…

There was a bowl of water they had placed on the floor.

And…

GET THIS!

The gal had placed a dog bed next to my table!!

You heard that right! A dog bed!

(Go back about three sentences and read that again if you still don’t believe your eyes.)

I turned to the young lady and asked if my dog could have a raspberry vanilla latte also.

She laughed.

Of course, she knew I was not serious.

There I sat…

had a perfect latte,

ate my sweet roll,

worked on three or four chapters of Abbot and the Stone,

glanced occasionally out at the snow,

and my Yeti was lying on a dog bed by my side!

My new favorite coffee shop in all of Planet Earth (including anything you night find in Dubai), is Rozy’s Hot Shotz in Deer Park, Washington.

Maybe we should start a coffee chain just for dogs. Our customers could order vanilla “paw-tays” and even take coffee home in designer growlers. What do you think?

PUPDATE!

Little Barracuda is doing fine and recovering from her surgery. I hated to see her sweet innocent self not knowing what they were doing to her.

In the car when I picked her up, I wrapped my arms about her and told her I loved her. I let her know this is likely the worst day of her life, that everything was downhill from here.

She gave me a kiss.

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.