Dexter in the Car: He's Got Bette Davis Eyes!

Pretty much every day after his supper, if the weather permits, Dexter and I go outside and sit in my Mazda in the drive way. The ritual began when the Mazda was indoors; a garaged car. But now it's outdoors, so the weather matters more.

The ritual is the same each day. Dexter gets his supper, half a can of Fancy Feast. He stops and washes his face and paws. Then I nab him and carry him out to the car. I open the backseat driver-side door and put him in, then I climb in myself. We make sure the windows are down a little so he can sniff the breezes.

Dexter wanders around the car, looking at anything and everything: birds, chipmunks, bunnies. Sometimes he gets up in the back window and lies there complacently, as though he might stay in the car forever.

But eventually, I scoop him up and take him back indoors, and I run him up and down the  hall way and stairs and toss him a few treats to complete the ritual. (And let me give you this bit of advice: unless you are serious, do NOT start a new ritual with a tabbycat, for cats will hold you to it!)

This was a shot of Dexter in the car just as the late-day light hit his face. It almost seemed as though he were a 1950s beauty queen showing his "best side" for the camera. "Light me like Hitchcock lit one of his blondes," maybe. :-)

So here's a song to go with a scene like that: Kim Carnes, with Bette Davis Eyes.