Last spring I met a man, Ricky, and his\ndog Cha Cha, alongside the road. Ricky told me he and Cha Cha had\nrelocated to the Secret Coast in the winter after bicycling and\ntrotting 1400 miles over the Rockies. He’d left Colorado after being\nstruck by a car and suffering horrific injuries. He had to see the\nocean after the accident. It was spiritual need, not religious. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the journey from Colorado, many\npeople had pulled over and gifted him with new, better bikes, a\ntrailer for Cha Cha, food, and donations to pay vet bills when Cha\nCha developed health problems.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ricky said, \u201cThe dog opens doors for\nme and the dog unlocks people’s hearts.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Presidents, preachers, pimps and High\nTech Zillionares can’t do that. Why do we follow their snake oil\ninstead of the slobber of dogs? \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the intervening months since we’d\nlast talked, Ricky scored a caretaking gig for a clifftop mansion. He\ngot the gig the same way we met. The mansion’s owner saw Ricky and\nCha Cha rolling down the road, pulled over, and….well, see where\ntalking to people can lead. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before we parted, I gave Ricky a couple\ncans of emergency dog food stored in my car. I told him I’d help with\nmore dog food and had a great bike if his ever broke down. He thanked\nme and we shook hands. I also shook hands with Cha Cha!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Some four months later, actually a few\ndays ago, I was driving home from my construction job and I noticed a\nman and dog walking along the road, not far from my domicile. The man\nwalked with a pronounced limp. The dog bounded along without a hitch.\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I came closer. It was Ricky and Cha\nCha! I stopped the car and powered down the window. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ricky greeted me like an old friend. I\nasked about his missing bicycle. It was shot to hell, a busted chain\non a custom bike, and he didn’t have a line on another one. He’d\nsuffered a recent hernia and it was all he could do to take Cha Cha\nout for a walk. He wanted to ride again, bad. He thought it would be\neasier than walking. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I told him I had a great bike that I\nhadn’t ridden in seven months. It was all his, although the tires\nmight be low, if not flat. Just follow me, I said, and you can have\nit. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ricky and Cha Cha followed and I set\nhim up with a sweet ride. The tires hadn’t lost a pound of pressure\nand the rig pedaled like a dream. He commented on how nice the bike\nwas, first class, top notch components. I offered to buy Cha Cha some\ncanned food from the nearby convenience store but he told me he was\nfeeding her cooked chicken and steak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Oh fuck yeah! <\/em>\n<\/p>\n\n\n\n I offered to buy him dinner from the\nstore.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cI could really use a beer,\u201d he\nsaid, \u201ca clamato kind.\u201d \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n What was a clamato beer I asked?<\/p>\n\n\n\n He gave me the lowdown and a minute\nlater he was the recipient of two 24-oz cans of some Budweiser\npicante-flavored clam\/tomato concoction packaged in a special tote\nbag I rigged up for the bike. \n<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ricky thanked me. We shook hands. Cha\nCha came over and shook my hand. Ricky rode away with Cha Cha\nflanking him to the right. I skipped and cried all the way to my\nhome, utterly joyous.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Have you ever skipped and cried like\nthat? I heartily recommend it. \n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Last spring I met a man, Ricky, and his dog Cha Cha, alongside the road. Ricky told me he and Cha Cha had relocated to the Secret Coast in the winter after bicycling and trotting 1400 miles over the Rockies. He’d left Colorado after being struck by a car and suffering horrific injuries. He had […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5254,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[40],"class_list":["post-5253","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-meditations","tag-dogs","has-post-title","has-post-date","has-post-category","has-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author",""],"builder_content":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5253"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5256,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5253\/revisions\/5256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5254"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5253"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5253"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nestuccaspitpress.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5253"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}