Cars and Dogs

Driving around town you at times see the most oddest and funniest things. Other than seeing people eating/drinking food, singing to a song, talking to themselves/on the phone, picking their nose, or going nuts with their fellow passengers, I've noticed dogs in cars.

Yes, dogs in cars are a fun treat to watch, especially when they are running around in the back seat trying to make sense of what they are doing in the automobile and licking the windows. Some of course will sit attentively, watching the rest of the traffic go by, like a human would.

But I must say, I witnessed two incidents in the past month where one dog must've regretted in doing what it did, while one must've been having the time of his life.

The first one happened when I was driving back home from work during rush hour. I was on a busy stretch of the highway, where I noticed a beige colored car in front of me, with a poodle walking on the back window ledge behind the passenger seats. I was thinking, why is the owner not yelling at the dog to get down? It seemed she was merrily driving in high speed down the freeway, talking on the phone. Just then, there was a sudden slow down in traffic. And the old lady driving with her poodle
prancing around on the rear window ledge, suddenly hit the breaks. The next thing that happened was something that could be on America's Funniest Home Videos, yet it was mean to laugh at. The dog, due to the force of the sudden breaking, flew off of the back ledge and hit the back of the headrest of the front passenger seat. It then proceeded to fall below into the rear passenger foot rest area. I was shocked to see
what had just happened. I could just see it in slo-mo like a highlight reel on TV or something (and I still can). I wanted to ask the lady if the dog was all right, and I'm sure other drivers around us must've noticed it too, but the traffic started to move again in a medium pace. And sad as it might sound, the lady seemed to have
not noticed the dog's fall. I'm not sure what happened to the dog, but if it was all right, it must've been shaken up.

The other incident was somewhat surreal. What I saw was so peculiar, that I wondered if us humans and animals do have similar tendencies that cross-over into things that are unique.

Let me explain:

I'm not sure if some of you tend to do this, but some of my friends and I, whenever driving down the road and travelling at a reasonable amount of speed with the windows open, put our left hand out and catch the drift of the wind, moving the hand in a 'wave' type fashion. In essence, you feel the air hitting your hand, and then as you move your hand down in an 'aerodynamic' position, you can feel the air going over it.

Well a few days back, I saw a dog doing the same thing!!! It was sitting on the lap of the driver, sticking its head out from the window, as dogs usually do. As the car would start moving, the dog would put out its left paw, and as some of us humans do, was 'catching the air', bobbing it up and down. And as the car would come to a stop at the signal, the dog would take back its paw. Again, as the car would start again travelling with some speed, the paw would go back up. My mom was with me, and showed it to her. She was even amazed. Then she started her typical Indian story of somebody most likely being re-incarnated into a dog, hence the human characteristics.

I really don't know what to say on that, but yes oddly enough, like a human, the dog was really enjoying the drive. I myself wish I had taken a video of it with my camera phone. But nonetheless, what I saw does show how we beings try to adapt and enjoy our surroundings, perhaps curiously in a similar fashion.