At Pet Smart near Town Center today I told the cashier that about ten years ago we adopted a dog and came directly  to this store to buy her some food and toys. 

I went on to tell him she was in our shopping cart.  She did not know us at all.  She leaped out of the cart and started running.  As she got near the front motion sensitive doors they slid opened for her and she kept on running out into the busy parking lot.

I think most, if not all, of the store's employees dropped what they were doing and started chasing her outside. One employee that was not in the chase was a teenage girl sitting in her car  in the parking lot eating fast food chicken nuggets on her lunch break.

The dog, soon to be named Willow, ran to one end of the parking lot and turned around and was running back in the direction she came from.  By now she had figured out what was going on.  Soon-to-be-named Willow was running toward the girl in her car.  She got out of her car and held up a chicken nugget in her hand and the dog ran right to her.

GOTCHA!

The cashier wasn't quite sure how to respond.  He said, about the same thing I would have said:  "Will that be all?"

I love to have a captive audience when I tell of a high energy adventure.

Dogs Will Be Dogs

This morning while doing my physical therapy exercise and looking out the window the window I saw our fence, still flattened because of the snow storm and beyond that the neighbor's basement door's dog door.

It will take a while for the fence people to mend our fence back like it is suppose to be.  In the present time the dog next door has ventured over the squashed fence to our yard and has been playing with Willow.  Willow enjoys his visits.

As I exercised I remember when first meeting the new neighbor a few months ago I mentioned the basement's dog door, that I see his dog is using it.  He said the one that was there was too small, so they installed a bigger dog door.  Now, it looks like the big dog comes and go to the back door as it wants.

The big dog and I haven't met.  When he sees me at a distance he fiercely barks at me.

As I was doing my PT exercise in the den I thought of one time we considered getting Willow a dog door. 

What would happen if we now we had a dog door for Willow?  We might be sitting watching TV and suddenly the big dog slides in through the door and decides to take care of business concerning me being a nuisance to him.

I wish the fence man would hurry up! 

Willow's Grooming, Chapter 2

Yesterday's episode was that Willow's groomer could not drop everything and groom Willow for Thanksgiving.  She was booked up!

I took Willow to Pet Smart go be groomed.

On the drive over I told Willow of our Pet Smart adventure seven years ago:

We had just adopted her from the Atlanta Humane Society at about 10th and Howell Mill Streets in Atlanta.  We drove back to Marietta and we could tell she wasn't that sure of us.  Who are they?  What did they  want of me?  Do they want to eat me?

To get on her good side we stopped at Wendy's and bought her some chicken nuggets.  She seemed to love them.

Our next stop was Pet Smart.  The same Pet Smart we went to today.  We wanted to buy her some treats and toys for her as a welcome gift to her new home.  We was not that large at the time and put her in the carriage part of a shopping cart.  We pushed her around the store and bought her this and that.

When we got close to the front door she saw daylight and sprung out of the cart and ran to the doors.  I thought she would run into the doors and then run some other direction.  As she ran to the door they sensed her movement and opened.  She ran out.

We chased her.  She ran.  All the employees ran out and tried to catch her.   More people in the parking lot joined in trying to catch her.

We were afraid some moving cars in the parking lot might do her harm, or she could run out on Barrett Parkway with lots of fast moving traffic.

HOWEVER!!  In the parking lot was a Pet Smart young lady on her lunch break.  She was eating Chic Fil a nuggets.  She got out of her car and held her arm out with a nugget on the end, in her hand.  Willow* galloped into her arms.

*Willow's name was Wiggles then.

A couple hours later before I picked up Willow at Pet Smart's Grooming Department I window-shopped in the dog bed department.  A lady with four or five daughters, all under age nine or ten, was having the daughters try out different dog beds.  They looked like they may be low income family...... why not?

HAPPY NATIONAL DOG DAY!

Arf!

Willow Speaks

Hello Bob!

My master (master?  Yeah, right!) told me you asked about me last night at the Woodstock Jamboree.  He said something about you saying something about I haven't been on Chicken-Fat lately.

I wandered off the blog but popped up on the Master's facebook.

Well, here I am back!  I didn't know I would be missed.

My master may have told you that I may have Cushings Disease.  I have no idea what it is.  It means some kind some kind of cyst or tumor could be in my head and it is pressing the buttons to control distribution, such as sugars and all that.  Now, they have determined that my urine is diluted, therefore it is not dumping the toxins.   I say as long as I have a good smelly bone to gnaw on, who cares?  They will run tests tomorrow to determine just what I have. 

The master (give me a break) is taking me for an all day visit at the vet tomorrow.  Tonight I can't have anything  after 8:30 and fast for 12 hours, then they will run the tests.  I need to stash a few chipmunks in the bushes for in the morning when I go out to pee.

Arf!

Willow

Back to Square One and Antique Cars

The other day when I picked up my dog Willow at the groomer and she was over-excited to see me (Willow, not the groomer), the groomer made a comment that we didn't take Willow out enough.

We told ourselves we needed to take Willow somewhere.  We nixed the dog park bcause everytime we carried her there she felt intimidated by the other dogs and sat under the bench we were  sitting on and wouldn't come out.  We decided to take her to our favorite human park, Glover Park in the Marietta Square.

The Marietta  Museum of History was having a car show.  You got to vote on your favorite car - they were all good so I voted for them all.  They were all winners - or at least got special mention.... or, that was what I was tempted to do anyway. 

Christi of the Museum complemented me on a certain post in Chicken-fat.  That made my day.  I always spend the rest of the day on Cloud 9 after Chicken-fat gets a comment.  I gloat because most of the time I feel that I am the blog's only reader.

Here are some of the cars that were in the car show:

Today is National Dog Day

Arf!

You know what they say, "Every Dog Has Its Day".  And today is the day.  Give your canine a furry animal to play with, like a cat.

Willow and the Hummingbird(s)

The title of this suggests there might be more than one hummingbird zooming around our heads on the deck and fussing at us, but who knows?

I'm just fumbling with my new camera, trying to learn something.

Click to make the picture bigger.

I Want to be a Couch Potato SO BAD!

The old man caught me three times lately on a couch. He caught me twice in the living room and once in the den. While they were asleep I found the joys of couch relaxing. I want to be a couch potato so bad! Please pray for me.

Willow



Take Care of Their Own

Last night, just before bedtime I routinely let our dog Willow out to “take care of business”. Usually, within minutes she is back at the door scratching.; but not this time.

That wasn’t like her. I got a flashlight and went to the back yard to check things out. In the darkness of a tree shadow of moonlight I heard a crunch, then another crunch. I shined my light in the direction and saw Willow bent over something.
I moved in closer to get a better look. Willow was standing over a freshly killed rabbit (two pieces). It was severed about an inch below its neck. Angrily I made Willow go back inside with me.

It was not entirely her fault, although she was the one that did the killing and was about the one to do the eating. She was bred to hunt. It was an instinct. She had killed chipmunks, squirrels, and other rabbits who dared come into our back yard. Most get away but at times I have seen her snatch a poor animal behind its neck, give it a good jerk and it suddenly becomes limp.

I thought I would get rid of the rabbit’s remains in the morning when it was daylight. We considered the options of burying it, flinging it someplace far out in the woods, or whatever. Finally, we decided to put it in several layers of plastic bags. Pour a box of Arm & Hammer Baking Soda in behind it and put it in our garbage can.

This morning, after our walk I waited for it to get daylight and then I went to the backyard with several plastic bags. I had a mission.

The rabbit (both parts) was gone. I looked all over our chain-linked back yard and it was not there. The only thing I can figure that it was eaten by either hawk, owl, fox, or whatever else scavenger or animal of prey. One thing for sure nature took care of its own doing its Chain of Life thing.

You heard the expression We Take Care of Our Own haven't you?

Walmart Customers, Dogs, and Giant Rats

Early this week I carried Willow to her groomer. Her nails needed cutting and even worse, she was beginning to smell like a dog.

She routinely goes with me to the post office to get our mail every day. Sometimes we go a different route to drop a movie at Blockbuster. When we go to Blockbuster we ride by her groomer. And she doesn’t seem to even notice.

However, the day I took her to the groomer, which is the same route as to Blockbuster, she started shivering and quivering as soon as I started the engine.

She knew she was going to the groomer. I noticed before when turning into the shopping strip the groomer is in she is shivering. It is not that she dreads going there, but she loves it. She gets to see other dogs, which she seldom does. It is a rare pleasure. When we get out of the truck I don’t drag her, she drags me inside.

I wonder what I do differently to tip her off that I am taking her to the groomer. I’m sure it is something and I think dogs are experts at reading body language and facial expressions.

Which brings to mind what Paul Roper and I talked about yesterday: Wild dogs in a pack. I watched on National Geographic- nature -type video features of wild dogs attacking a deer or something equally big or bigger. There is a plan; every dog has a certain position in the attack. There are ones who know which way to come in being aggressive and they know which way the prey will turn and run and that is where most the dogs are waiting, but there are others in positon all around ready in case the animal chooses another direction. Every intricate detail has been worked out.

It is like a coach explaining a football play to his players. But he can talk. He can make a diagram of little x’s and o’s on the blackboard how he wants the play to be carried out

How does the leader of a dog pack get across his play-plan? As far as we know they don’t have a spoken language. They communicate, probably better then we do by body language and facial expression and maybe a few growls and pissing off boundary lines. How does he inspire his team?

The reason Paul and I got into such an intellectual discussion was that I forwarded him a bunch of pictures under the title of “What Kind of People Shop at Walwart.” He called wanting to know what that plastic sack was hanging on a person’s leg. I more or less said, “The liquid is yellow an't it?"



Then he wanted to know what kind of creature that was someone had on a leash. While on the phone he apparently on line found out the name of the creature was Caplin Rous and it is the largest in the rodent family, getting as big as 65 pounds. He also read off that they are from South America. Then he read off how their teeth are shaped and how the teeth chew up its food. And then how it is then broken down and digested in the giant rodent’s stomach.

We both agreed that we now know more because we looked at the pictures of people that shop at Walmart.

Are we like a couple of research professors or what?

Willow the Wild One

Arf!

Poor Willow

Yesterday evening Willow slipped and fell down the 2 or 3 steps going down from our deck. I don't think it hurt her physically but it might have hurt her ego or her self-esteem. She was not the little pouncing prancing leopard she that she was only moments earlier.

When she slipped she let out a squeal like a frighten little girl. Then, she trembled some and wanted to be close to us for a while. It was a scare she wasn't expecting.

To build back her pride and ego I thought I would play a video I took of her just last week romping and playing all over the back yard - Queen of the Septic Tank area.

Go Get'em Willow!

Look! Yes We Have No Pictures! also Willow

While waiting on someone to fix the blogger uploading system let me type some-this- and- thats.

Yesterday we went to the Annual Cobb County Library Sale at Jim Miller park. We carried Willow. While Anna went inside and shopped Willow and I wandered around the park. This is the park that the county fair is held every September. It is a huge place with some big buildings, it seems they are always hosting something.

Willow and I wandered away from the building the book sale was held at and down a hill and came upon a little lake, or big pond. Several people were fishing. It was a nice day to do something like that. In fact, someone must have liked the idea of hanging out beside a body of water, they brought their huge recreation vehicle. An awning was up, hanging from the huge RV and an lady was in a recliner. She was not getting sun because she was under the shade of the awning. I guess she just like to lazily hang out by a lake (or pond).

Then we went shopping for premium dogfood at Pet Co. I shudder every time I see a retail store, like Pet Co with those motion sensor sliding doors. The day we got Willow from the Atlanta Humane Society we stopped by Petsmart to buy Willow some food and toys. While shopping, somehow the humane society's leash slipped off her neck and she realized it about the same time I did. She didn't know us yet and I think might have been mistreated before - I'm not sure she trusted any human beings.

She took off running in the store and I took off chasing her. She ran to the light of the outside which she could see through the motion sensor sliding glass doors. When she got closer, the doors obligingly slid opened and out in the parking lot she went.

Out in the parking lot we chased her and could not catch her. She is fast runner. Some employees in the store and some customers came out to help and we were running all over the shopping center chasing her as she zigged zagged between us. Most people would say she was panting - but I know she was laughing.

A Petsmart employee on her lunch break came up and parked. She was eating chicken nuggets. She saw the crowd running after a dog and it was headed her way. She stepped out of her car and held her hand with a chicken nugget in it out towards Willow. Willow stopped to take her up on her offer. GOTCHA!

That was two and three quarters year ago. Time has changed things. Now, I am the abusee and Willow is the abuser. But in due time she will have trained the way she wants me.

When we got home it was almost 5:00pm. On the spur of the moment we decided to go to Canton to the Kennesaw Blue Grass concert. I know, I know, Kennesaw Blue Grass is held at the Arts Center in Canton. I don’t know why. It used to be held in Kennesaw.

Why don’t they just change the name? It appeared that there is a different management team and mostly different performers. I will discuss more about that in a blog some day.

We drove to Canton. I forgot how hilly of a town Canton is. All those hills with homes and business buildings down at the foot of hills and up on top of hills and the curved road make the town a nice scenic drive.

We ate at Williamson Brothers Barbecue in Canton. Same brothers as in Marietta. In another room a middle-aged biker gang was holding a birthday party. They were all dressed in their leathers and denim and little patches, and whatever else is their standard uniform to look different. They kept coming in and out.

When we were leaving we went out in the parking lot and a couple of the bikers were out having a smoke. A flat bed wrecker pulled up with a dirty beat up (I think) ‘55 red and white Chevvy on it. The two bikers were impressed. Two men got out of the truck, I suppose to go in an eat and one of the bikers said, “Who’s car is that?”

And one of the men said, “Yours!” That hit me unexpected and funny.

The concert was held at a the Art Center, which used to be big church. It is just about a block from the courthouse. Next to the Art Center is a hilly cemetery with old tombstones in it… it looks inviting for some nice photographs. I’ll try to remember it.

The concert was supposed to have two bluegrass bands. One cancelled out for some an unknown reason to us, but the one that did perform was great.

They are called THE PEACHTREE STATION. For their website is click here

The sanctuary was pretty much full, but a lot of people were there for a bluegrass concert – maybe 70% capacity.

The audience was not the people we were used to going to bluegrass concerts. For a while I thought we were almost the youngest people in the room. Mostly, they appeared to be retired professional people with a few yuppy couples here and there.

Past Weekend Dingleberries

Saturday:

Willow loves to lie on our bedroom floor with her head under the bed. I think she is going back to her primal instinct of cave dwelling. She visits her make-believe-cave two or three times a day.

I did a post on her head under the head cave-dwelling habits months ago.

Our son Adam came by Saturday to work on our computer. We couldn’t get the printer to work and tried everything we know. It took Adam about 2 minutes to have it printing as it should be.

He also did a couple other things concerning the computers while he was here; making adjustments and this and that.

Willow is crazy about Adam. She reminds me of a little girl showing off tap dancing each time Adam is in her presence. Sometimes a good petting from him will relax her; that is all she wanted anyway, just a little Adam attention.

Saturday Adam was deep in his work I left the room and went to our bedroom for something. And there was Willow with her head under the bed. It doesn’t matter what is going on or who is there, Willow demands her cave-dwelling time.

And I already posted our stroll in downtown Marietta.

Sunday:

We try to monitor our heart rate routinely. We have a little heart rate monitor that you strap around your wrist like a wristwatch and it tells you the figures, including your pulse.

But how do we know it is right?

There is one way to find out. The Cobb County Fire Department will check your heart rate with their professional equipment. It is free. All you have to do is drop by a fire station.

Sunday, on the way to Blockbuster I thought I would drop by the Fire Department, which was on my way. I walked up to a door and tried to open it. It was locked. I walked away, wondering what to do. I looked back to see if there were any more walk-in size doors and no, only big doors for fire trucks, but I did see a button on the wall beside the door handle. I went back and pressed the button.

A young man in blue came and opened the door. I asked if they do blood pressure and he said yes. He was very cordial. He reached into a drawer of a desk by the door and got the heart-stuff he needed. He had to take it several times, and even had to swap my arms to get an accurate reading. Then I put on my wrist blood pressure gadget and turned it on to compare. The bottom number was exact but the top number was about 16 points off. … hmmmm. Now what?

I thanked him and left.

I was thinking about ringing the door-button again and say, “lets try that again to make sure!” But, I don’t want to make a pest of myself. I’ll return again soon.

I went on to Blockbuster. I was on a mission. I wanted to check out A SERIOUS MAN which is a Joel & Ethan Coen movie.

My routine at Blockbuster is that I turn right as soon as I enter and start at the last letter of the alphabet on display of the new DVDs and work my way backwards.. I found a section for A SERIOUS MAN and all the DVDs were gone.

I kept on going my way, backwards. Half way up through I came across A SERIOUS MAN again. This time about half the DVD little cases were there. Hmmm. What they did was put the movie in the S section for the “Serious” and again in the M section for “Man”. I didn’t go all the way back to A, but they might have had a section for the movie there too. Note, that where it should have been there were none left. But misfiled in the M section about half were left. People went to a certain section and looked for it and found it. That is why I think one section had several and the other section had none.

We have been keeping up with the Coen Brothers fans ever since OH BROTHER, WHERE ART THOU? They make good movies. I think you would have to watch there movies over and over, maybe with a group of people to make sure nothing slipped by, and tell what you got from different scenes to get the most out of it.

They also did FARGO, which I thought was great and NO COUNTRY FOR OLD MEN, which I thought wasn’t so great.

A SERIOUS MAN is about a wimpy little guy who is very much part of a town’s Jewish community and traditions surrounding their religion. It seemed that the little wimp was predestined to be a wimp or a sad sack. All the cards were stacked against him… it was even expected for him to pay the expenses of his wife’s boyfriend’s funeral because the late boy friend’s money was tied up in probate. Being, non-Jewish I don’t think I got the full value appreciation of the movie. I needed a group around me to point things out that were flying over my head.

Dog Jokes - Unexplained

This morning I ran into my friend Roy at the Post Office. Roy and I live in the same subdivision, about 5 blocks apart. We each have a PO Box and see other at the Post Office more than we see each other in the neighborhood.

Roy told me he and his wife Bonnie have a new pup, part cocker.

I said, “That Joe Cocker gets around doesn’t he?”

We both laughed.

Then I told him that I heard that dogs that were part cocker spaniel didn’t shed much. He said that might be true, they haven’t noticed much dog hair.

Roy said he was trying to teach the dog to play Frisbee, do I play Frisbee with Willow?

I told him I tried. Willow is good at catching it but she doesn’t want to give it up. The same with playing ball with her, after she catches it, she gets downright possessive and growls and snaps if you try to take it from her… like she earned it, now it is belongs to her.

Roy said why didn’t I get the rule book (he pantomimed flipping pages) and show her (pointing on his imaginary page) that the rules state that you give it up to play catch it again.

We both laughed.

There are some serious-minded people who might have said something like: “Joe Cocker? What are you talking about? I meant part cocker spaniel!”

And:

“But dogs can’t read!”

Murphy's Monday

Last Monday morning I woke up hearing rain gushing outside. I decided not to take my dog Willow on a walk.

I went into the kitchen to pour my morning coffee. I noticed the floor was wet. I turned on the overhead light for a better look. Water sprinkled all over me.

The ceiling was leaking. Water was seeping down through the base of the fan and settled on top of the fan blades. When I turned on the light the fan also came on and gave me a little surprise.

Or a big surprise. We just had new roof put on in June.

We called the roofing company and they sent two people out within a reasonable time. It was pouring down rain. The leader went on top of the roof, climbing a ladder using one hand to hold and the other hand holding an umbrella. Which I thought would make a good picture – I should learn to always have my camera close by.

The helper climbed up in the attic. The helper knocked on top of the inside of the top of the house while the boss-man would look around for a problem in the vicinity he was knocking and then shot the problem with a chalk gun.

I guess it worked. The leaked stopped. When the helper climbed out of the attic I noticed for the time his arms had a lot of tattoos on them and he had a Cub Scout or Weebolo cap on – the little blue kind with yellow lines, leaving from the top center button… where was my camera?

The leader said he THOUGHT he fixed the problem, but we won’t know for sure until the next time it rains. He said if it still leaks during the next rain call them. At least he was honest.

After they left it occurred to us that I didn’t ask him about the damaged ceiling. The next day there were two big discolored splotches caused by the rain. Oh me.

We also bought a new mattress over the weekend which was to be delivered the next day on Tuesday. Anna removed the dust ruffle thing off the old mattress complex and took it down to the basement and washed it in the washing machine so it would be clean for the new mattress.

After she washed it she tossed it wet into a basket to wait for the dryer to finish up with the load it had in it at present.

In the mean time, Willow was digging for chipmunks in our backyard and got muddy. I wiped her down with a towel. Then I tossed the towel into the basket of what I thought were dirty clothes, without looking closely.

Later Anna told me to put the wet dust ruffle into the dryer. I saw the dust ruffle underneath a wet towel and thought the towel was also freshly washed. So, I put both into the dryer and started to walk away.

Then BOING!! I remember the dirty towel. I took the towel out, then took the dust ruffle out and examined it. Somebody must be watching out for me. The ruffle had no mud or dirt on it.

Then, later that evening I was cooking chicken parts on the grill. It was a recipe I got on the Internet that taste pretty good. I have used it several times already. As far as this narration go the only important part is that you completely bath the chicken in barbecue sauce in direct heat it with the lid down for two minutes.

After the two minutes I collected my chicken up on a platter and went inside carrying the chicken. Somehow – a misstep I think, the platter tilted a little and a thigh, covered thickly in barbecue sauce managed to topple off the platter onto the carpet.

Darn!

Luckily because I jumped right onto cleaning the carpet stain it came right out. And I ate the thigh.

No problem. All's well that ends well.

Interaction Theater

What’s Going On Over There Now?

The above is an expression us neighbors have used many times when we call one another.

Members of the family across the street are always doing something bizarre. It seems that they do most their off-beat stuff in their front yard. It is like they are doing a live play, their front yard is a stage and they each have trained their voice to bellow so that there are no bad seats… everybody can hear every curse-filled sentence, whether you want to or not.

Usually how the show starts a police car or two parked out front with police officers discussing matters with some of the household members. … or it doesn’t have to be a police car, it may be a visitor that looks a bit shady that looks like he might have some business to discuss.

Four of the five houses that surround the front yard are all audience members. When an action is going on that looks strange, one will call another one and say, “What’s going on over there now?”

Then when word spreads to all houses the shades are pulled shut with just a small opening in one of the windows in each house. Then we watch, all from different angles, and discuss what is going on with our phones. Sometimes some of us will have to fill in the others on what happened earlier that day. All but old Jim, 88 years old. Jim just leans on a rake and stands in his yard as close as possible to the action and looks on them wide-eyed and never blinks.

The above picture is a stage prop that is a big bunny that I thought looked interesting. It has been on top of their garbage can since the teenage boy’s girlfriend and their 2 kids moved out, with a police escort, last week,

This morning, unfortunately, I was part of the action. I was an actor. But it was before daylight, so no one could see me.

This morning at 6:30 I stepped out to take Willow for our morning walk. I noticed the two dogs from across the street under the street light, just hanging out. One of the dogs is a pitbull dog.

I heard that the pitbull dog attacking an elderly lady and her dog. The elderly lady and the dog ended up with gashes. Willow and I went back in, went to the basement and I picked out a well-balanced cut-off cue stick, and we went on our walk.

When we were walking on our driveway the dogs were no place to be seen. Then, once on the street they came galloping up barking and growling. One of them lunged at Willow. I whacked him on the side of the head. It stunned him but didn’t stop him. The other one kept lunging and each time I swung. After the first hit they both artfully dodged my swings. The people across the street were not home.

They dogs backed us into the house. I sat there and simmered for a while. I can’t even go on a walk. I’ll be damn!

I called my neighbor Jim and told him the situation. He said a few days ago he noticed the dogs were looking very skinny and neglected and he thought they were starving so he cooked up a batch of hamburger meat and carried over to them…which they quickly gobbled up.

I told him I was going to call Animal Control. It was dangerous to have them loose. There is a leash law. He agreed.

Oh wait, I forgot, the laws don’t apply to that family.

I called Animal Control. They said OK. That was about 8:00 this morning. I noticed the pitbull was sitting on their front step (center stage) about 8:00pm, 12 hours later.

Action!

Arf!

The other day the podiatrist removed one of my big toenails.

After it was over the nurse gave me a printout of post-op instructions. One of the things listed was to soak my foot in warm water with Epson salt.
I notice when I do this my dog Willow comes up and wants to drink the water.

Two or three times I have ran her off when she tried drinking it. Today when she tried it I asked her why did she like that water.

She said, “Arf!”

I got out my animal translating machine I bought from Amazon and asked her again. It translated to more or less to say, “Man! If you haven’t tried Human Toe Soup you haven’t lived!”

A Good Deed for a Day

One morning while walking Willow not long ago, almost a half mile from our starting point, I noticed in a driveway what looked like a checkbook.

I didn’t touch it. We continued our walk.

We walked about 1.5 miles and were coming back and I started thinking about that checkbook looking imitation leather lying in that driveway. I shouldn’t have just let it stay there. I should have picked it up and carried it to the house and knock or ring and ask if it was their checkbook, or whatever.

OK, if it was still there, that is exactly what I will do I told Willow. She looked up at me and I’m not sure if she was panting or laughing at me.

The checkbook looking thing was still there. It was closer to the street than I thought. It was only about 18” up the driveway.

I picked it up and walked up to the front door. A climbing vine complex with leaves completely covered the front door. It hasn’t been opened in years.

I walked around to the carport, in between three cars in the upper part of the driveway. As I found out, the cars had no room to park in the carport. The whole carport area was covered with junk, old furniture, and toys.

There was a trail, sort of, that led to the carport-kitchen door. I felt like if I walked up to the door and rung the doorbell or knocked I would be intruding. Somebody at that house probably would rather people not see all that stuff.

I looked at my watch, “Besides, it is 6:30 on a weekend the morning.” I thought. “Being awaken at this time of the morning up may not give them a thrill either.”

So, I laid the checkbook down in the middle of the path leading to the door. When somebody came out they would have to step on it or kick it. … by the way, when I was easing it down I noticed money greenery – it had at least a $10 bill was in it, probably more.

I hope they got it. And if they did, I hope it was theirs.