brittany spaniels and hells angels

dinner out for my mom's birthday.  the restaurant was very crowded so i'm sure people sitting close by could hear our conversations.  lots of time spent discussing hells angels.  their origin, people we know perhaps associated with the group, hunter thompson.  seriously.  like an hour of this. happy birthday mom!

then we moved on to pets.  our sweet sweet brittany spaniel, my beloved companion of 16 years, was a focal point.  actually, the dog was a jackass.  he growled a lot and bit people and suffered more than one nervous break down.  he was bossy, indignant, and he chewed when he got angry. but he was my dog and he was loyal and could be very loving.  it's just, well, he was smart and he knew it and he wasn't going to let you forget it.

perhaps the funniest memory of this dog involved billy, the last cat we ever owned.  billy was given to us at an inopportune time.  my mother is a sucker for animals.  she is incapable of turning them away once they are in her presence.  so billy came to live with us, just a little kitten.  the few weeks billy spent in our house were hard on him.  the dog carried him around in his mouth.  constantly.  the cat was always wet.  the dog wasn't being mean, but really, it was not the greatest life for a cat.  my brother's friend bd came to visit.  billy jumped on bd's shoulder and wouldn't move.  and with that, billy moved to washington, dc with bd and changed his name to bumper.