Viva La Tejas

Dear Texas,

I've been with you for almost a month. I don't really want to leave you but I feel like you are telling me that I should.

Every day was a challenge. Every day was invigorating. Every day was tiring, and amazing, and meaningful.

It's time to go home. 

I miss my person. I miss my dogs. 

Meeting you was a coincidence but every time our paths crossed you taught me an important lesson.

You've humbled me. 
You've educated me.
You've empowered me. 

Empowered me to make different decisions and to have a new understanding of the world around me. 

You've given me confidence and you've introduced me to an entirely different world of my passions.

On my last day, I was going to make a glorious exit. I was going to drive. I was going to reflect. I was going to decompress. 

You had other plans.

I met Steve. Steve was my tow truck driver. My tow truck driver had never met anyone that lost their keys the way that I had. I lost my keys in the middle of Texas and Steve answered the call.

"What are you doing all the way out here with this big van in this part of Texas?" Steve asked. 

"I was here helping the lost pets in Houston." 

"You got in to the right tow truck ma'am cause I got a whole crew at my house." 

Steve has 7 cats, 20 cows, and 2 horses. 

All of his cats are spayed and neutered. He can't stand to have more kittens because he loves them all so much he can't raise and keep all of them. Even though he wants to keep all of them. It wouldn't be fair to the cats. So he got them all fixed.

His oldest cat, "old boy," is 14 years old. He found him and his litter mates of little baby kittens. Steve bottle fed all of them with milk from his cows. He took Old Boy's litter mates to town and gave them to neighbors who needed barn cats. He kept Old Boy. Every night Old Boy jumps on Steve's bed and gives him meows and makes biscuits on his chest. Steve lets him under the covers and Old Boy sleeps at this feet. Every. Single. Night. "This is the routine, ma'am, and I love it." 

One of Steve's other cats is named "Yeller Cat." aka Yellow Cat. Yeller Cat is his favorite. He weighs 20 lbs or more. Steve knows that this isn't healthy for Yeller Cat... but he's the favorite and jumps on the table and steals people food. Since he's the favorite he gets to do what he wants. He has also taught Yellow Cat some tricks. Yellow Cat jumps on a stump in the yard when Steve calls for him. Yeller cat does a hand stand to a happy little tune, "doo, dun, dun, da, da here's Yeller Cat!" He receives head scratchies as a reward. He also fetches like a dog. He'll fetch exactly 4 times. But gets tired and leaves when he's done. 

Steve bought me lunch even though he was the one helping me. I'm the one who lost the keys. He also let me help him with the hydraulics of the tow truck to get my big 'ole van with no keys onto his flat bed. "Yer hired, ma'am!"

Thank you Steve for the Texas hospitality. I hope we cross paths again. 

As for Texas, it's been an amazing month but it's time for me to go to. 

I hope we meet again soon. I will never forget the people and the lost pets of Texas.

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