About a dog

Our local grocery store is a smallish establishment that is pretty crowded most of the day but really just BURSTING at the seams around dinner time. People come and go and return to get the stuff they forgot. And then send their kids to pick up some beer.

People tie their dogs up by a little telephone booth right by the door of the store. The dogs are usually pretty good about it. They sit there patiently and don't mind sharing the booth with other canines. Just sit and wait. Except for the little ones that get impatient and try to get rid of their leash and do little funny barks at people who look at them and then look away.

The other night, on my way back from work I walked past the store and saw a little dachshund standing under the telephone booth. His leash was lying in a muddy puddle right next to her and her owner was nowhere to be seen. I thought that she'd tied the puppy to the telephone booth and went into the grocery store to buy some food. Then I thought that maybe the owner had lost the dog and the dog had come to the grocery store to look for them and that, I thought, was both terribly sweet but also just terrible because it meant that the dog could have been lost. So I walked up to the puppy, grabbed the leash and stood there waiting for someone to come claim her.

I stood and waited, stood and waited. Lots of people smiled at me because I had a cute dog. A couple of guys laughed at me for having dressed the puppy in a little puppy sweater. It's not my dog, I wanted to say, but I really like her sweater so I didn't say anything. I stood there for fifteen minutes.

Finally, the owner came out of the store, grabbed the leash right out of my hand and said Oh, the leash came untied. Then walked off. I wished I'd stolen the dog and brought it home to my husband. He would have loved it more.