Saturday, March 1, 2014

The List

The FedEx man knocked on the door. I jumped. I didn’t hear him coming. I don’t have a dog anymore who barks when somebody pulls up. Before I knew it was the FedEx man, I hoped it wasn’t a bad guy out there because he’d know I didn’t have a dog, since none was barking, and I’m out in the middle of nowhere. I could get killed and no one would know it until Kelly came home from school or Kurt came home for dinner. That was one of the good things about Motley. He’d bark when someone arrived, but when I told him to stop, he’d stop.

The FedEx man handed me my package and asked, “Where’s the dog?”

“He died,” I said. “Kidney failure. We had to put him to sleep right before Christmas.”

“Oh no, I’m sorry!” He looked down at his pad. He scratched his head like he couldn’t believe it. “I keep a list of all the dogs on my route. I’ve got: Motley… Friendly.”

That’s why I miss him so much. Forget keeping burglars away. He’s on delivery drivers’ lists of nice dogs.

4 comments:

Grey Horse Matters said...

So sweet and sad at the same time. It's so hard to lose them and I can tell you still miss him terribly.

My daughter lost her dog the weekend before Christmas and the ups guy was looking for him a few weeks ago when I opened the door. (I was babysitting). He was also upset that Bear wasn't there anymore. Seems our animals touch more lives than we know.

Tammy Vasa said...

Now that REALLY makes me cry.

So I'll pass on some humor (or an attempt at it). Our white shepherd, Ritz, terrorized the delivery men. They got good at pulling up next to whatever car was here and putting our packages on the car so they didn't have to get out. The Schwans man would honk. Really, he wouldn't bite if they didn't threaten but men have such a defensive way about them. So after we put Ritz down, every dang one of them asked "where's that white dog". I think their list of dogs probably wasn't as kind.

Greener Pastures--A City Girl Goes Country said...

Tammy, but at least he made a list! lol

Grey, I'm sorry about Bear. She lost him the weekend before Christmas which was exactly when I lost Motley.

Motley said...

The best dog EVER!