The Adventures of Stella Luna: Test Day (Part 2)

ONLY READ THIS IF YOU'VE READ PART ONE. It'll totally make sense to you if you read them out of order but come on, don't be that person. I'd have to cover you in wet slobbery dog kisses or something to make you understand that you need to change your ways. What a tragedy! (You better make sure you taste good. For your information, my favorites are peanut butter, carrots, green beans, apples, and bananas. You know, in case you wanted to be prepared.)

NOW, as I'm sure you know, we went to Walmart first, but the rest of the test didn't occur at Walmart. We went to a dog-friendly store called Runnings. Which is like a cross between Petco, Home Depot, and a few other stores. I don't know. Grandma—Anna Pearl's mother—loved it so much she wanted to go back, but I just liked it because we met two other dogs there. Athena Rose and I really liked that.

At Runnings, my mission was to not get distracted by anything. Not the candy, candles, dog treats, other dogs, anything. And for the most part, I succeeded. But there was one thing I wasn't prepared for:

The hand dryers in the bathroom.

Athena Rose, the trainer, Mama, and I all went into the bathroom and stood by the sink. Athena Rose shared her collapsible bowl of water with me, which we drank out of under the sink. Now, there's a special thing about why we drink under the sink, and Athena Rose was very careful to explain this to me.

The floor is tiled in a bathroom usually and those tiles, when wet, can get very slick. The last thing we want is for someone to not see the water and step on it and slip and fall. So, we drink under the sink when possible so that when we make a mess, we're less likely to cause someone to slip and fall.

But then the trainer turned to Mama and said something, walked over to the hand dryer, and stuck her hand under it. And it started screaming!

Jumping away from the water, I turned to look at it, and Mama bent down and twisted her wrist in my face as if she was screwing in a lightbulb. "Loud noise," she said close to my ears. That reassured me. If the noise was okay for her, it was okay for me, even if it hurt my ears a little bit.

We went to Wendy's after that, but that wasn't that fun. Athena's friend Levi ate a french fry off the ground, but that was about as exciting as that got. But! I got a badge that my owner really wants me to tell you about. I would share a picture, but it gives away my owner's real name and where she lives so she says I'm not allowed to :(

On the badge, it has a little picture of me in my red flannel, the one I used for my very first diary entry. One thing that my owner forgot, however, was she forgot to put my FULL NAME on the badge, so it only says "Stella" not "Stella Luna." I forgave her though.

What I probably won't forgive her for is the fact that it calls me a Collie on the badge. On my vet records, it says I'm a Siberian Husky, because that's what the vet put down, but we don't know what I am. I could be anything!

Listen, if I knew what I was, I'd tell ya', but I'm a Stella Luna and that's all I've got. One day, perhaps I'll let my trainer give me a DNA test so we can find out for sure.

But that's the second part of how I got my badge! Have a happy day!