Previously Part 1, Part 2.

Now begins part 3 of our travelogue, heading on the final stretch, over the river and through the woods to Grandmothers’s house.  It was a long drive, so Fancy made good use of the time rehearsing for his role in Annoying Private Ryan:

Still nailing it!

Alabama has a welcome center too, we are sensing a pattern.  The first thing we find is a phone booth, a strange relic from the lost past of telephony. Maybe it is a time machine!  Princess attempted to communicate with it, but found it strangly unresponsive. Fancy tried to help, but also found it unresponsive. Princess wanted to change into a superhero costume in the phone booth, but we didn’t bring any superhero costumes with us, so Princess and Fancy just played in the booth for a while instead.

Next to the booth was a large concrete monolith with an inspirational saying on it.    Fancy thought it must have been placed there by a fellow pet’s rights activist – the persecution of pet’s rights and the sinister signage of institutionalized pet prejudice is an injustice Fancy hopes to overcome some day.  He has a dream. Fancy is sure that concrete block is meant to inspire pets everywhere to fight the peculiar and perversely pernicious idea of defending the idea that it’s a “right” to keep pets from visiting visitor centers.  Fight the power, hedgehogs, you have nothing to lose but your leashes!

Princess bristled at Marxist undertones of Fancy’s proclamations.  As a member of the aristocracy she feels torn. Fancy thought it best to change the topic, since it was a bit of a prickly subject.

“Cousin Phil?”

There were some lovely holly bushes, so we posed Princess in front of them and got this super lucky photo of Princess waving!  Whoah!

Once again we met our old nemesis.  Rather than explaining with complicated words and sentences why this is bad, we didn’t.

Princess and Fancy were both appalled.

Fancy can be quite the activist…

Is this what happens when a puppet has nothing left to lose?  Pushed to the edge, will Fancy, once a mild-mannered and law abiding puppet, become a rule-breaker?

Clearly.

Fancy even turned to handing out brochures he wasn’t authorized to dispense!

And engaged in doing whatever it is that’s happening here.

The breakdown into anarchy continued.  Princess turned from her mild mannered rigid authoritarianism to anarchy to the point that *she went past the NO PETS ALLOWED sign*!  At this point things were careening off.  Princess even tried to climb into that little buttoned down spot on my collar that there was no way she’d ever fit into.

But with family intervention and care she settled down a bit – note she still was rebelliously sticking out her tongue here.

With more time cooler heads prevailed, and we persuaded Fancy and Princess of the value of the social contract,  and that we had a Grandma to get to.

On the way out, we decided that there must be a politically connected brother with a sign making business, because seriously.

And later that day we got to Grandma’s

And Great Grandma Gracie even got to see Princess Pricklepants:

THE END