Rosie, Go Home

My neighbor’s dog, Rosie, comes by everyday like clockwork. She will sit right outside my window until I notice her and go out. I have been feeding her a tin of cheap sardines and she loves them. Often, I will lay down with her on the grass and give her ample belly rubs and back scratches.

Today, I sat out for my daily walk and Rosie just happened to be over. She started to follow me and no amount of persuasion could get her to go home. An elderly lady was recently killed by a pitbull in town and the animal control officer has really been active lately. I have seen her patrol my street many times the past few days. I feared that Rosie would be captured and taken to the pound. I finally turned around and retraced my steps so Rosie would follow me home. I gave her another tin of sardines and snuck off as she ate them.

It was a cool, cloudy, and overcast day as I walked. The sky was threatening rain; typical weather for the south around Thanksgiving time. As I walked up my street, my other neighbor has two Boston terriers in a fence in their backyard. They ran over barking furiously as I journeyed by their house following me along the contour of the fence. You would think they would have tired of this game after all the many times I have followed these steps on my travels down to the Piggly Wiggly.

The Piggly Wiggly was extraordinarily busy today. They were having a sale on Thanksgiving turkeys. The parking lot was full and people were busily coming to and fro from within the store. I bought my usual chocolate milk and cheese on wheat crackers and sat outside on the bench next to Weasel. Weasel has mellowed up after regaining his home despite having the mother from hell.

Ferret wanted to know why I and George are such good friends and hang out together. I had a hard time explaining our relationship. He thinks it is odd that a young white guy and an older, middle-aged black man hang out together. I tried to explain that George confuses me with someone else earlier in his life. Ferret was under the misconception that I was a “homo” and was giving George “favors.” This brought a big laugh out of me. The last thing on my mind is anything sexually to do with George.