Roderick and Jewells go shopping for a car

It all started out innocently enough. Mike turned down his company's offer to purchase the Lincoln MKX for slightly below market (no one was really too excited by that car anyway) and sort of as a mother's day present for Evie decided to buy a small pickup to haul stuff from the house to CCA or the landfill (as appropriate). Knowing Evie's visceral dislike of pickups, and in particular the large gas guzzlers favored by Texans, Mike focused on a small, fuel efficient, low carbon foot print, pickup such as a Ford Ranger like this:

This created something of a panic for Roderick and Jewells once they figured out he might be serious about this (he was after all on craigslist and autotrader and writing down notes and phone numbers).

Why the panic? Well for starters, where exactly would Jewells sit? With her corgis cousins gracing the royal halls of Buckingham Place, there was simply no way Jewells was going to ride in the back of a truck like some mixed breed Texas ranch dog. No, a standard cab just would not do.

Roderick on the other hand thought it would be kinda fun to ride in the back, but Roderick is also a very traditional dog and in this family tradition means 4WD/AWD. Just like each of Rod's four paws, each wheel needs to contribute to the effort. It is simply how God intended dogs and vehicles to be. That Ranger was a 2WD- RWD, and to Roderick it seemed, well, unnatural.

There was, of course, another more fundamental concern (which no one really talks much about) - vanity. Jewells and Roderick have nothing against Fords. Although an anathema to Evie, a red full size lifted 4WD F-150 double cab King Ranch Texas edition would be just fine with them, but Mike was looking at a pitifully underpowered, undersized 4 cylinder 2WD stock Ranger. It hard to conceive of a more wusssy truck. What would the neighbors think?

What were Jewells and Roderick to do?

As it turned out, Dave came up from Houston to help Mike look for a truck, and in the end things turned out OK: