Cosmolene

This is my original fur-kid, Cosmolene Cascabelle Eaton. She is named after a song by one of my favorite Texas Music artists, Houston Marchman, called "Cosmolene" about a "redneck hippie truck stop cutie/roadhouse queen with a blue bonnet tatoo on her toe."

She has earned many nick names throughout her five years: "Lupita" for silently stealing and eating my crunchy tacos as a 4 month old pup on a road trip from Dallas; "Snob" for walking up to one person in particular at a party who was dressed poorly (read: GANGSTA) and peeing on his shoe. Out of about 80 people, she walked right up to him and tinkled on his big shoe; "Señorita Cosmolita" for stealing margaritas out of people's glasses when they weren't looking. The kid has got spunk.

My favorite story associated to Cosmo and her nicknames is "Cosmo Knieval." Let me paint the picture for you.

You know when you're a little kid and you learn the law of gravity at school, but you still think up ways to prove it? Like if you're riding in the bed of a pick up truck that's going 25 MPH and you jump straight up, will you fall out or land in the pick up truck bed?

I did my own inadvertent test. But I was in my late 20's, not my elementary school years.

It was a glorious, beautiful sunny day, perfect for a girl to cruise around with her convertible top down. My hair was down and flying and the sun was burning my cheeks. Glorious day!

Cosmo had socks on her feet (attached with rubber bands) so she wouldn't claw my new leather seats. I always kept a leash on her when she rode with me to act as a child seat: safety first!

I was speeding down the B.A. expressway (literally... 90MPH) and was blasting Willie Nelson. Life was good!! Sweet Cosmo's leash was attached to my wrist, but after a few miles, I noticed that it felt a little taut for optimum steering power....

I look to my right where my co-pilot sits and the passenger seat was empty. EMPTY. Keep in mind that when panic strikes and you're sitting in a chair, that's fine and good; but when panic strikes and you're doing 90MPH on a fairly crowded expressway, that's a little less comfortable.

My little black convertible coupe had only two seats, zero room behind those seats, and then led to the trunk area. Atop that trunk, sunning herself like the princess she is, was Cosmo, basking in the sun, head to the sky, paws stretched out like she was on a white sand beach.

I jerked the leash while simultaneously braking a little, sending my little sweet furkid baby into a blind panic of her own. She froze and immediately hopped back down into her co-pilot chair.

I still wonder what thoughts must have crossed other drivers' minds as I passed them at an unsafe speed with my Siberian Husky tanning on the trunk of my car, Willie Nelson's "Shotgun Willie" blaring... my blonde hair whipping me in the face (and not in a hot way, I assure you).

The good news is that little Cosmo didn't scratch my leather seats. She did, however, leave claw mark scratches about five inches long on my TRUNK from where I yanked her back in the car.

Not long after that, I traded in the fun but completely impractical shiny coupe for a 4Runner, specifically for the back window that rolls down so my little kid could bask all she wants, but not put me in jail for cruelty to animals.

Long live Cosmo Knieval.