Next daddy gave us each a bath. We hate baths even though it gets rid of the fleas and makes us smell good. Then daddy put on nice clothes and a tie, packed us food and water and loaded us in the car. By then the sun was up and it was a pretty day. It was about 8:30 a.m. We were excited. Charlotte sat in the back of the Honda Civic on her haunches for the first 26 miles and watched the world go by. Jenny and Blaze laid down in the back but kept looking out the windows. The General sat in the front seat until he got tired and curled up with his head in daddy's lap.

We stopped in Virginia at a rest stop. It was a pretty day, cool and no clouds. Next we stopped in Richmond and later we stopped outside of Washington, DC, our nation's capital, on I-95. Each time we stopped, people came over to see us and to talk to us. After four hours of driving, we arrived in Washington, DC, our nation's capital. We had driven 250 miles in 4 hours. We don't know what a mile is. Daddy said it was almost twice the length of a greyhound race track. We don't know what an hour is but we had time to take lots of long naps.

First we went to Bolling Air Force Base to buy the General some new Lieutenant General's stars. Since daddy in Navy, the General usually wears some nice tasteful vice admiral's stars but daddy wanted the General to have nice new big stars. Then we drove by the Capitol, home of our nation's Congress, by the Library of Congress and the Supreme Court Building. There were lots of people there. We had time to kill before the Blessing of the Animals at the National Cathedral so daddy took us down to the Mall. We parked our Honda Civic, got some water and walked around the big pool at the head of the Mall by the Capitol. Charlotte wanted to chase the pigeons. Daddy said he thought she was on DC crack cocaine. Is that some brand of dog food?

Then we walked down to the Aerospace Museum. People everywhere came to talk to us. Two Japanese business men came out of the Aerospace Museum. They didn't speak English or greyhound but they wanted to have their picture taken with us. Then they wanted to hold our leashes and get their pictures again with us. Jenny Mae didn't like that. She thought daddy was giving her away. All they could say was "thank you." We looked real pretty all clean and all with our new flowers on our collars and the General with his new stars. The people in Japan, where ever that is, will think we are neat. Daddy said we can't go to Japan.

Then we got in our Honda Civic and drove by the White House. Daddy said Socks, the First Cat, lived there. We couldn't understand why a cat need such a pretty big yard with such a nice fence. Daddy said that if we couldn't win a race and make a lot of money, we couldn't have a big yard with a nice fence like that. We bet Socks never did win a race and we bet Socks never did an honest day's work ever to get such a nice big house with the pretty yard and the neat fence. We never did see Socks. We hoped Socks would come out to play.

We got to the National Cathedral about 3:30 and walked around the pretty building. There were lots of people who came and talked to us. There were also lots of pretty plants to sniff. When we got all around the Cathedral, people were arriving with their animals. There were lots of dogs, some cats and even a rabbit. There was some kind of lizard. The Washington Post interviewed us and took our picture and channel 7 shot footage of us and interviewed us. This is getting to be such old hat now. And everyone came over to talk to us. We get tired of it sometimes but daddy is always so proud and beams when the people, the TV and the papers talk to us. Daddy is so silly.

The service was nice. Blaze didn't like getting sprinkled with Holy Water. He had already had one bath that day and he is such a baby about getting a bath. The Dean of the Cathedral, Father Baxter, came over to see us. He kept saying, "Look! Greyhounds." He was wearing some neat robes. We wanted to mark Father Baxter's robes but we knew daddy would get upset. Daddy has no sense of humor some times.

Then everyone sang "All Things Bright and Beautiful." We like that song. Daddy sings that to us at home a lot but he sings "Greyhounds Bright and Beautiful." We said our daddy is silly. It was starting to get cold and the sun was setting. Charlotte was shivering. She always gets cold easy. We were tired and got in the car and went right to sleep. We only woke up for dinner in Fredericksburg and slept all the way home to Raleigh. We didn't want to get up the next morning.

We don't know who had a better time, us or daddy. Daddy says that we may try to go back next year. Oh, yea. Daddy said he'll post the whole service when he gets time to type it up. Do you think daddy's boss Al would make us reporters for the Duke University News Service in Washington, DC, our nation's capital?