Telling stories seems to be my family's favorite pastime. These stories are not always about my family, and half of them are probably like the 'one that got away', growing bigger with every retelling. But we have a profound need to tell and hear stories, even if you had to walk to school uphill, both ways, trudging barefooted through the snow to be able to tell your children about it. It is how we share experience, understand each other, and create community.

08 August 2006

Dog Food, Part II

Once a dog has been deprived of food and water, he will never forget the experience, and will likely be paranoid about it for the rest of their lives. One way you can cure that attitude is to make sure food is put out for him on a strict schedule. Unfortunately, sometimes humans don't adhere to any sort of schedule, much less a strict one. Dogs, however, will be there, waiting impatiently, because there is only now to a dog.

Mom and I had gone out to run some errands. Going grocery shopping wasn't one of them, but we passed by the store and we needed to restock the refridgerator. Having two sons will make that necessary on a regular basis. As we were filling up our cart, lunchtime passed us by. Not by that much, mind you; we were only half of an hour late getting home.

On the way in the door, I bumped into Mom, dropping about half of the groceries I had been laden down with. My mouth snapped shut on the unwise thing I was about to say when I saw why she had stopped so suddenly. Mom's shoes had stopped just before stepping into some kind of white powder that had been spread all over the kitchen. Stepping around her, I saw that the five-pound bag of flour that had been on the floor was now only a half-pound, the bag eaten down to the level of what was left.

We looked at each other, confused about how exactly this had occurred, until Duke came trotting around the corner. His eyebrows, snout, and chin were covered in flour. Just then, my brother arrived home from work and walked in on our white, silent scene.

"What the ..?" he began. Duke was standing in front of me, just out of view.

"Duke ate the flour," I said.

Never one to miss an opportunity, he promptly quipped, "Let's give him some water, he'll shit biscuits for a month!"

"Feed him some beans, we'll lose him in the cloud!" Well, I couldn't let my brother have all the fun.

Mom just rolled her eyes and left us to clean up.

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