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I hurried out the door this morning to big, fat, beautiful snowflakes twirling and whirling through the air. This was a surprise, since I thought I had checked the weather report, but we all know how quickly things can change. My heavy wool coat felt perfect for the day, and big snowflakes soon splotched it with white.

Mike’s truck needed new tires, and they had been ordered several weeks ago. The appointment to have them replaced and aligned had been on the books for a while, or I may have cancelled and sat beside the fire enjoying another cup of steaming brew on this wintry morning.

I usually drive my car, and I’m bad about filling it up with things that I might need but usually don’t, so I had a few things to transfer to the truck before dropping it at the tire shop. As I hurried to move things around I noticed a terrible odor in the car.

What in the world is that? I just gave Missy a bath, and I know the little towel she sits on shouldn’t smell so bad! I can’t imagine what it is, but I don’t have time to investigate right now, I thought.

The dump is on my way to town so I threw the household garbage in the pickup to drop off on my way in. I like to make sure that I empty everything when I’m headed that way, and I had a little room left in one bag, which caused me to rove around checking for anything that might be ready to be discarded.

By this time almost everything in the yard was covered in white, but I still wanted to finish my task even if I waited until later to drop it off. This led me back to the car to check for any discarded paper or other refuse in the cup holders or on the floorboard, but once more a terrible smell assaulted my nostrils.

Even though time was ticking away I had to get to the bottom of this! I picked up Missy’s little towel and took a deep breath in. There was almost no scent on the towel, and what was there wasn’t offensive.

Then it dawned on me! I had taken Missy for a walk yesterday in my daughter’s neighborhood. We know that responsible pet owners clean up after their pets so I had taken a plastic bag with me to take care of this task. After our walk I had a bag full, and I didn’t want to leave it for my daughter to discard. I had groceries in my trunk so I put the bag in the floorboard of the back seat.

Upon arriving home I unloaded the trunk and got busy putting my groceries away never giving the little bag in the backseat another thought. Thank goodness it was a cold day or things could have been a lot worse!

Jan Penton Miller can be reached at lilsisjan@yahoo.com.