The Puppy

My wife stepped outside a few days ago and saw a neighborhood girl chasing a puppy. "Help!", the girl shouted. "It's my friend's dog!"

My wife isn't real good with dogs, but it's hard to say no to a kid. She stepped out to join in the chase, but the dog had already gleefully leapt into our garage.

And thus the game was afoot. My wife just wanted to the dog to leave. Neighbor girl was nearly in tears, shouting "Help! It's my friend's dog!" over and over. And the rouge pup was convinced he'd just discovered the very bestest game EVER.

They chased him around the car a few times. He ran over by the lawn mower and knocked over the weed eater to discourage pursuit. He dodged under some shelves and started dislodging boxes because he liked the noise they made. He stole one of my screwdrivers and used it to remove his collar. He even crawled up into the attic and broke most of our Christmas decorations. All the while he was successfully playing keep-away from the humans, bouncing around and barking happily.

Clever pup.

They eventually caught him by dragging a TV out into the garage and playing a Lassie rerun.

The very next day my wife looked out a window. The pup was back and running north with the kind of wide enthusiastic doggy-grin that said, "I just *know* there's a Scooby Snack for *me* on the other side of that hill!" He was on a leash, dragging neighbor girl along behind him. As she bounced and crashed and rolled in and out of the street she shouted, "Help! It's my friend's dog!"

My wife stayed inside.