Say your prayers

Shepherd One.  Know what that is?  Nope – not the top ranking Herding Dog in the world.  It’s the nickname given to the plane that carries the Pope!  The Big Guy is currently visiting the U.S.  He’s a pretty popular guy – as evidenced by the crowds who have come out to see him.  I like him.  He speaks his mind, calls for more charity, is less judgmental, and seems to care about the environment.  He is also named after Saint Francis – who liked animals.  Bet he would LOVE us PONs –and even Pax too.  Yeah – like every powerful figure, not everything the Pope says or does is perfect.  But then, who is?  Except us dogs of course.  Because what is dog spelled backward?  I rest my case.

Despite our perfectness,  we were all busted the other night.  Yup - we sinned.  Well – not Frodo -the good dog...   

So my human got home from work and took out our food dishes to feed us.  But before we ate – she let us all out for a quick pee.  We usually run out, do our thing and DASH back in to be fed.  Except the other night.  It was one of those not-so-slow-motion moments with my human starting to open the door and instantly spotting a CAT in the front yard.  And of course, all of us spotted him too.  As my human went to close the door, we ALL were already IN MOTION – and out we went.  Like a line of trains SPEEDING up the driveway – with me in the lead.  “AGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHH – STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP,” my human shouted.  And for one split second she thought we were coming back.  I lost sight of the cat as he raced into the woods and I circled back toward the house trying to pick up the trail.  Everyone followed.  My human pleaded with us to come in – but I got a whiff and off I went – with the other two stooges right behind me.  My human quickly opened the garage door to head off in the car – when she saw Frodo running back toward the house.  She hoped Pax and I would be following.   No such luck.  Frodo is so good – he drives me crazy.  Anyway, she whisked him in the house and drove the car to the neighbors’ house up the road.  She parked at the end of their driveway and I came racing up and I hopped into the car, panting like mad.  It was a great run.  But no sign of Bucket Head.  The neighbors happened to come out and shouted to my human which of us she was looking for.  “The big one,” she shouted down.  “Nope – no sign of him.” So my human drove home – on the chance that Pax looped back home through the woods.  Yup – we pulled down the driveway and there he was.  Panting and puffing from his run.  My human just glared at both of us.  What a blast.

I’m blaming our behavior on the change of seasons.  I mean, that WAS the last night of summer – and we just wanted to take one final summer run.  Suuuuuuuuure we did……

Oh – and the cat is fine.  He must have been saying his prayers….

©  Linda Wozniak