After dropping my car at the mechanic’s, I found myself marching down the highway towards our town. Thankfully, two gentlemen in a worn truck stopped and offered me a ride. We all huddled in the front seat and rumbled into town.
In the back of the truck there was a beautiful dog called Snowbear:
She was the quietest, politest dog in the world.
Here is me with Snowbear:
I haven’t slept at all tonight thanks to an ill-considered cup of chai I had at 10 pm, hence the exhausted look.
I think this adventure counts as hitchhiking, and that makes me feel very American.
Clarissa's Blog 
What a soft, truly sweet looking animal! I love retrievers.
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She is 18 years old! Didn’t make a peep during the entire trip and put up very graciously and patiently with petting and hearing terms of endearment in Russian that I addressed to her. 🙂
In dog years, I’m guessing she is older than me, right?
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One human year is supposedly seven dog years, so 18 x 7 = 126, indeed, she’s about great-great-grandma age!
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Wow, I had no idea! I hope we all look as young when we reach that age. 🙂
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“I think this adventure counts as hitchhiking, and that makes me feel very American”
And part of the hitchiking experience is having friends tell you how reckless and lucky you were and how you shouldn’t do that again because there are so many nutcases out there!
I’m also in general very fond of old dogs (and cats). They have a serenity that’s very nice to be around.
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These were very nice gentlemen. They are building a fence around a 40-acre ranch in the neighborhood. And they kept offering to buy food for me during the entire 15-minute trip. I probably look like a person who needs to be fed every 15 minutes. 🙂
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I thought you disliked dogs.
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Hate them. But this one was completely silent and didn’t drool on me and I feel profound gratitude for that. 🙂
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Awesome dog, and even more awesome that you liked her. A giant step in Clarissa-Canine relations.
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This is a testimony to the great powers of my analyst. He isn’t promising that I will ever actually want to buy one but I no longer have panic attacks when I see dogs at a distance of 500 feet.
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