Klaus, High Desert, Memories

The other day I met a friend of the companions named Tom. Tom loves animals and rescues dogs and horses. The horses were cool. The dogs were sweet. Well except for Klaus the beagle. I love beagles, and Klaus was cute.

But he was all paws! All paws!

He kept trying to mate with me, but I don't do that anymore. No more having puppies.

So today we were in the high desert again. It seems like we've been in the desert for a while. First it was the Colorado Desert, now we are in the Mojave Desert.

This is typical of the high desert. There is a lot of brown sand. Some brush that spots it around. Joshua trees all over. I swear if the companion yells "oh look a Joshua Tree," one more time I'll bite him.

But I think the desert plays with you, it plays with your mind, and it brings you back to things you forgot, things you don't want to remember. But the desert makes you stronger and the way you look at the past changes.

So we are biking along in the high desert today. The companion found us several routes today that were with little or no traffic. And I liked that. So I sat in the contraption and looked out to the desert, and let the smells come to me, and let my mind go where it wanted to. And I thought of Klaus and his frisky playing. Which lead me to thinking about where I had my pupples.

It's a place and time I don't think about--ever! I think back to when the Companion picked me up. But today, in the desert, I went back further.

Back futher to where I was a mother. All of us where kept in small areas. I didn't get out side for walks. I never saw a vet. We were feed unhealthy food. I had litters, and the pupples were taken away and sold to stores. I never saw them with their humans.

It was a place where dogs were used to make puppies so the humans would make money.

We had very little contact with humans, but we wanted it. And I would stick my nose out every time they walked by to get some loving. Mostly not.

The place is called a Puppy Mill. And according to the companion there are puppy mills all over the country.

But my memories of this place were gone until today, today they came back. I don't know how to end puppy mills. But I know that I was take from it. I was taken, with other dogs, by the animal police, and they took me to a shelter. There I was taken to Guardian Angel basset rescue. From there I was put in a foster home. Then the companion come and got me.

How lucky was I to be taken by the rescue. I ask all of you to adopt dogs from rescues. Support them, foster with them. And you can help end puppy mills.

I looked up and saw the companion bicycling down the road. And I wondered what he was thinking about, was he thinking about his past too. What was the desert doing to him?

Well we arrived in Mojave. And it is the gateway to space! Fine, let's go!