Roadkill Cafe, Part 1

I can still remember meeting Ribsy for the first time. Still wish I hadn't, and it wasn't anything that Ribsy himself had done. Okay, let me just put him in context. I met him on the side of the road. He'd seen better days. To come out and say it, Ribsy was roadkill.

Somehow, he didn't let that define him, and maybe I need to get into some heavy metaphysics to explain how he was roadkill and that wasn't the end of our relationship, but suffice it to say, Ribsy changed my whole world.

I'm a walkin' dude, and so that's how I came across him in the first place, and so it was a shock the first time we met, to say the least. I immediately felt sympathy for him, and I couldn't tell you even now what breed of dog he had once been. Something in the medium-to-large build, mostly black with the white highlights. Maybe you know what I'm talking about and maybe you think you know Ribsy better than I do now, but I tell you, you don't know Ribsy until you know him personally.

The first thing I noted was that he didn't take his death personally. It was my first instinct to curse the one who'd done it, turned Ribsy into roadkill, but he was quick to tell me that his death was only the beginning. He said it was the first step toward his connection with the whole of the animal kingdom. He let me know that it didn't normally include humans, but he was perfectly willing to include me. Needless to say, but I was gratified.

We talked a lot, actually, I don't know for how long, but it didn't take long for me to feel as if I'd known Ribsy all my life, and turn around from the grief over his death to treating him like the best friend I'd never had. He made it easy. Ribsy took most things easy, really.

Anyway, it wasn't long before he brought me to the Roadkill Cafe, and that's how I met the rest of them, travelers of the road of life most of us never see, or are hard-pressed to acknowledge. Then again, Ribsy's pal Foxy I met much the same way I met Ribsy himself, but I'll get to that.

For the moment, let me just relish those earliest days in the company of my most peculiar acquaintance. I'm sure you'll catch up.