Yesterday morning I took Caroline to school a little bit early because I had to help her carry in some things for a project that was due. It was necessary for us to arrive early because heaven forbid any more of her peers than necessary should find out she has a mother.
It also warmed my heart that she asked me over breakfast if I could “look better than your normal morning self”.
We managed to get everything dropped off in her Social Studies classroom and she even hugged me discreetly in the hallway before I walked back to the car. When I got home I fed the puppies which is an event unto itself because everyone thinks everybody else has something better in their bowl. It’s basically twenty minutes of shenanigans where I occasionally have to command “EAT! EAT YOUR FOOD!” and threaten to pick up their dish. It’s only when there is an imminent threat of no breakfast that they become interested in breakfast.
After I finished with all the nonsense of the morning, I made myself a perfect cup of coffee and sat down on the couch to catch up on email and daily news and maybe People.com because I feel that it is important to be well-rounded and you never know when J.Lo’s weekend visit to the pumpkin patch with her kids might be the topic of conversation. I’d hate to be uninformed.
All the while, the puppies are barking at people walking by our house like it’s their job. Mabel, in particular, runs laps around the back yard every morning, pausing only momentarily to get a quick drink of water lest she miss something like the same eighty-year-old man who walks by with his Bassett Hound every morning. Oh sure, he may look harmless but Mabel seems to sense he might be a threat.
My point is that I should have realized earlier that it got much too quiet. Puppies are much like toddlers in that silence is a pretty good indicator that there is some tomfoolery afoot. But, frankly, I was like Simon and Garfunkel and enjoying the sound of silence.
It finally dawned on me that it was way too peaceful and so I glanced out on the back porch to check on the dogs. Scout was sleeping under the bench like he always does, but the puppies were nowhere to be found. However, I did see a large piece of something white that looked like stuffing.
That’s weird. Stuffing? But there isn’t anything stuffed in our backyard. In fact, thanks to the puppies there is hardly anything in our backyard except for dead grass and mud.
Oh. And the target Caroline uses for archery practice.
That used to be filled with stuffing.
But it was clearly a menace and they killed it dead.