Trae with our neighbor's wonderful dog. He loves to run with her and she lets him. She is a good dog.
Have you ever had a run in with a dog?
I did once. I was delivering girl scout cookies when I was 8 and a neighbor's dog came running from its house and tried to chomp my arm. He jumped up and was nearly as tall as me. Maybe he wanted the cookies I was holding which I was trying to use to fend him off. I can't remember whose Thin Mints I ruined that day...
I loved my childhood dog, Darby. He was a Chihuahua. I remember my mom taking me to get him. The owner of the litter of pups had me lie on my stomach and call them to me. The one who made it to me first was the one I could have and Darby was it. We loved him silly.
Not long ago, my husband was enjoying a trip to the Dentist. The office is in an old saltbox house and the steps up to the entrance flank each side of the door. There is a driveway to the right of the door which is narrow and leads to the parking spaces in back of the house. It's kind of charming.
But kind of not; it is a dentist office after all.
After his appointment, Jon bounced down the steps and turned the corner. As he rounded it he reached into his pocket for the car keys. When he looked up he was staring into the face of a huge German Shepherd. The dog was already in motion to jump and as he did, Jon took his right arm and crossed it in front of his chest in a defensive motion. It was the only thing he could do after being startled so suddenly. The dog jumped and clamped on to his arm. As the dog pulled away, he took with him a bite out of Jon's arm.
As luck would have it a Police officer just happened to be near the sidewalk when he heard the commotion and came running. Who says cops are always at the donut shop? The Dentist and his wife both ran out the side door closest to the drive-way and called off the dog. The officer, angry at the situation, yelled at the Dr. to see if he was the owner. Nervously, the dentist had Jon come in and they cleaned his wound, saying they would pay for everything and worrying that we would sue. After they bandaged him up, he went to our family doc, got stitches, a tetanus shot and antibiotics.
The police called and asked him to come in for pictures and to file a report just in case this were to happen again. His 1 pm appointment had now stretched to 7 pm.
He was asked to sit next to a girl in a waiting room at the police station. There were two officers grilling this girl about her drug activity. The officers were stern and she was crying. Jon thought at first that he was in the wrong area. He sat quietly listening to the girl's story and wanted to raise his hand to be excused but they told him to wait there. Finally it was his turn and they took pictures and asked again if we were going to press charges. Jon said no, it was an honest mistake. Someone had left the gate opened and the dog ventured out. We were just glad it wasn't a child that had been bitten.
So after all of this, and two weeks later I got a bill in the mail. Not from our family doctor but from the dentist himself! He sent over a $25 gift card for the shirt (from an outlet store) and a $59.00 bill for the teeth cleaning. The nerve, I thought, and I wanted to go bite him in the arm.
I ignored the bill for a while thinking they might get the message but it kept coming. Jon sent the payment over and inadvertantly made it out for $50.00.
AND after all of that, they called Jon at the hotel he manages. They called, not to see how he was doing, they didn't even mention it. They called to see about getting a good deal on a meeting room for their classic car club. Jon quoted him a price and they thought it was too high.
Then the puny gift card made sense to me.
A few days later, I received another bill for the $9.00 we left out of the original payment.
And 6 months later, I received many messages on my phone reminding me to make our next appointments.
"Are these people for real?" I wondered aloud.
I planned on calling them to express my frustration but I just never got around to it.
Then I figured that sometimes silence speaks the loudest and I never heard from them again.
