I remember at 13

I remember the summer I turned 13 that all three of us went to Hummingbird Music Camp and left our parents at home. When we left them the family had one dog, Rusty. My sister had got him for her birthday the year before. He was a toy poodle (which really confused me when we were looking for one because I thought she wanted a real dog and they were saying we were getting a toy). Hummingbird Music Camp is where I learned all the silly camp songs I know.

At the end of the week our parents came to pick us up. I was in the band shell getting ready to perform when I first saw them and people kept passing between them and me. But I was real confused. Because if people were on one side of my parents then our dog was on the ground on a leash. If people were on the other side suddenly our dog was in my mom’s purse. That was one quick doggy.

When we finally met up with our parents it turned out that while they’d been home alone they’d gone out and got another dog. So I’d really been seeing two dogs. They’d been waiting till we met the dog to name him but Dad had been calling him Fred in the mean time. We decided that was a great name for him. Fred was the runt of his litter and used to being pushed out from the food by his siblings. So when he could get food, he did. And as soon as we sat down for lunch he took the hamburger patty right out of my brother’s hamburger.

I’d gotten two parakeets for Christmas the year before (having read every book on them in the library to prove I knew how to take care of them). When we moved to El Paso that fall their cage was in a huge box in the van with no way for them to see out the windows. Yet every time we went under an overpass they both ducked.

Our first winter in El Paso it snowed enough that we were able to make an entire snow family in our back yard – all five people, both dogs, and both birds. We thought it was funny walking around the neighborhood and seeing everyone’s attempts at a snowman. It was obvious that most people had little to no experience with the task.