There were only about 15 students in the library, and they were scattered all around. Some were by me as all the tables in that area have outlets and some were over at the other tables reading or working. A few were upstairs on the mezzanine.
All of a sudden, Coach sat up and started making that unmistakable sound of a dog beginning to hurl. It is quite appalling and there is no way to stop it.
Every student turned their head to look at me. I looked down at Coach. "Oh Coach!"
There was complete silence as Coach made three loud and sustained gagging noises and then barfed on the floor by my feet. It was a bit of his stomach contents and some grass, since he does always try to eat grass when he goes out to busy.
The junior girl near me said, "Poor Coach!" There was a chorus of Awwwws and Ohhhhs throughout the library.
"I know. Poor baby." I was standing by this time and I tugged on his leash to get him moving. I figured we might as well get some paper towels and clean it up. He was a little wobbly since he was coming out of a deep sleep and had just thrown up and we were walking slow, when he started that heaving noise again. I was near the library work room.
"Jan, paper towels!"
"Don't bring him in here!" Jan yelled.
Some of the students were standing to see if he was going to hurl in the workroom.
"I'm not going to bring him in there! I just want to some paper towels!" By now we were standing by the doorway. Coach was standing and heaving. Then he let out a huge burp. He sat down and looked up at us.
I patted him on the head. "This has been a tough day for you, little baby. Let's go outside for a bit."
I took the paper towels that were finally handed to me and on my way out set them on the table near my computer. Everyone murmured sweet things to Coach as we passed by. Out in the sun he seemed to perk up a little. He didn't try to eat any grass.
I left his coat off and went back inside. Then I cleaned up his accident. Since he was out of coat, there were some students who wanted to comfort him.
"I love Coach the best," one of them said. The fact that he had just barfed did not deter them in the least from loving on him. Nor did they seem in the least bit grossed out.
At the end of the day, on the way to the car we had something extraordinary happen. Well, I say extraordinary, I guess I mean extraordinary in Coach's eyes. As we came up to the car, there was a huge orange cat sitting next to the passenger side door. If you remember, that is where Sir Pukes A Lot threw up his breakfast on Wednesday and some of it I just left on the ground by my car. I guess the cat found it and decided she liked dog food barf. Coach, who was just in the process of throwing on the brakes as we approached the car, saw the orange cat and was entranced. A cat! All for him!
He picked up speed. The cat picked up speed and raced to the front of the car. We raced to the door. Then he realized where we were and it was too late. I had the door open and it was time to get in.
He learned. Chasing cats is dangerous. It can make you do things you don't want to do. But puking. Puking brought love and unexpected cats into your life. Puking was a double-edge sword.
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