Just like first day of school, Part II

It was Fall, when we dialed the number on the name card. It was time overdue for Lecter's virgin haircut.

That morning a week later, I scooped up the furry bundle from his favorite spot and set out for the groomer's at six-plus in the morning, navigating through the roads on scribbled directions copied from MapQuest.

It was a long way, a half hour (no traffic) drive from our apartment. It got especially sleepy during the last stretch of the dusty road of wilderness. Deloach's WS Kennels was like one of the lands atop the Faraway Tree: far and away, though not exactly exotic.

We dropped Lecter off at Deloach's like a FedEx package, and zombied back into the Camry. Dee and I were feeling dopey like hell, so we were pretty much oblivious to the struggling black fur ball in the groomer's expert hands.

I couldn't remember much of what happened after that; I (we) totally conked out. We were due to pick Lecter up at five, but we woke up late, lost our way a little, and finally reached there when all the rest of the kids were gone.

When we saw Lecter scuffing his feet on the counter top, we just stood there guffawing for more than five minutes.

He was like a shaven lamb with a really big head. We almost couldn't recognize him. His tail fanned wildly once he spotted us. And I just hugged him coz I missed him so much.

He, the little lamb who lost his mink coat, and had a big beard.

That was his first, and our first. We called him Kam Gong for the rest of the week.