WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?!?!?!

Heading home to pick up the kids this afternoon and was just turning the corner to pass our house (which is on the way to the school from my work) when I happen to see a little white chihuahua who looks an awful lot like our little Reynita casually taking a stroll up the avenue.

So, naturally, I slam on the brakes [just skip over these next few sentences please, Amy], pull onto the curb, jump out of the truck, leaving the windows open and my laptop and BlackBerry on the passenger seat, and run around the corner in my 4" espadrilles so that I can whoop her little butt as soon as humanly possible.

But she's gone. It took me two seconds from the time I spotted her, and now she's gone. So now, you think I'd be worried, but you'd be dead wrong. I'm pissed. And I'm starting to perspire. And now I'm walking up and down the block -- did I mention the 4" platform shoes already -- up and down the block -- up and down the block -- now I'm screaming at the top of my lungs, "REYNA! WHERE ARE YOU?!?" And you know, even if she was within earshot, she's totally not stupid enough to come to me now. She can hear that tone in my voice, too. So, I finally make my way back to the house, go into the backyard still yelling for her and knowing full well that 3 of our 4 adjacent neighbors are home all day long, and wouldn't ya know that damn dog was sitting pretty as a picture on the back stoop. Just waiting. Batting her little eyelashes and waving her paw at me in that condescending way that only chihuahuas and hairless Mexican cats can.

So, I spun around, slammed the gate, jumped back into the truck (and yes, I'm VERY lucky everything was still there), and picked up the kids. Having relayed the entire fiasco to them on the way home, by the time they got to the backyard, they'd already decided her fate.

"Nena!" Saia yells, "What were you thinking!?!? You could have been taken by a stranger. I'm very disappointed in you,"and she waves her finger and stomps into the house.

"Nena!" the boy screeches, "I don't know what you could have been thinking? You could have been squashed by a car in the middle of the street! Like a pumpkin, Nena! A PUMPKIN!!" he yells, and then finishes with "You're not getting any treats tonight." And that was that.

And part of me was a little proud that they understood (at least a small part of) why I was mad, but another part of me just kept saying, "Oh, man, what have I done?"