In the morning Titus quietly sat in his crate as everyone woke up, took showers, and generally bustled around. At breakfast he and Piper ate together with no problems. Titus waits at a sit for his food patiently and allows his food to be taken away with no complaint, even with Piper within feet. Titus was then dressed for the big day.
Titus and Jeff walked down to Breadcraft, sat quietly and ate while he (Titus) was admired from afar and much discussed by the other diners. Then off to the downtown bus station to unhesitatingly board the bus, settle in a row with plenty of legroom, and lurch forward to the next stop. While the bus was in motion Titus had to stay in a settle for stability but would sit up to look at the stops. No reaction from Titus as, from his perspective on the floor with sight obstructed by high seats, people walked past inches away. After an hour and a quarter we arrived in Blacksburg.
It was then off to the dentist for a cleaning where Titus sat in the waiting room, went upstairs to the examination room past people in lab coats, horizontal in chairs, with masks, funny glasses, and amid a strange swirl of new noises. Then it was to a settle at the foot of a chair that made pneumatic noises with swinging left and right with Jeff's feet dangling off the end. All the while Jeff has a lead in his hand and, being the wimp he is, shifting and twitching as a women in a long green gown and three eyes creates the most God-awful sound with medieval instruments scraping his poor teeth. When his suffering was momentarily interrupted Jeff would use precious seconds to anxiously check on Titus, who generally appeared to be asleep.
After a short walk through campus it was up six flights of stairs weaving in and out of loud and hurrying students to Jeff's office for a five minute break a drink of water from a coffee cup (Jeff's ability to think ahead is limited) and then Jeff went to a quick meeting with his boss as Titus settled in under the desk. The quick meeting became an hour. When Jeff finally got back Titus was fine and there were no reports of sound from the adjacent office.
Now it was down the stairs, and through the chaos, to another building, where Titus had the pleasure of hearing Jeff pontificate for nearly three hours to over one hundred students in a lecture hall. With that mercifully over it was back to the bus and on to the downtown Roanoke station.
At transfer time the bus station is the third circle of hell (at other times it is merely a lesser version). In this semi-enclosed space there are buses coming and going within inches, people yelling, children screaming, horns honking, brakes squealing, phones ringing, people bumping, and exhaust inhaling. Other than sticking closer to Jeff, Titus is curious but unfazed. At one point a girl of about seven caught sight of Titus a few feet away and screamed an awful scream - Titus took little notice. He was, however, startled and jerked his head when a man came running from behind us and screamed at his friend ahead.
Jeff and Titus slept the sleep of the just that night.
Friday was on the bus to and from Blacksburg, a walk to downtown and back, Jeff's office, an hour class, a new cafe on campus, the elevator, more stairs, one class as Jeff lectured, and one class with Jeff and Titus as students.
Observations:
Titus appears to have a good sense of direction. On more than one occasion we had gone to to and from the same place twice and on the second trip Titus would appear to be following the prior route and need to be nudged to a new path.
When walking downtown it was striking to see Titus hear an airplane overhead, look up, and follow it.
The landings of the stairwell at Tech has floor to ceiling windows and Titus loves to stop and look down upon the activity below.
When walking through the neighborhood there was a women in a long billowing robe and headscarf 100' ahead. Titus was momentarily startled as he caught sight of her.
Titus needs work on the park command.
Titus does indeed bark. Just a quick woof if he hears someone in the downstairs apartment.
Medical:
Titus is still scratching a bit too much, but I have yet to find another flea.
The hot spot has not increased in size and may even be healing a bit.
Jeff has concluded that Titus has a 55 gallon drum for a bladder. When he (Titus) finally does pee, he (Jeff) has time to read a novel.
This morning Jeff dutifully awoke at 6:30 to take Titus out to park with no luck. Breakfast for Titus was more successful. Titus and Jeff then visited Susan and Titus was able to run around and play with CZR and Cookie for an hour or two.
R and R is the plan for the remainder of the weekend.
No comments:
Post a Comment