Love my dog, love me

While out and about this past weekend I watched as an older man leashed to a small white poufy dog, trailed slowly down the street after it, cleaning up the little presents the dog erratically left behind here and there. It brought back memories of a short-term director we were subjected to a few years ago. This older little man would bring his quiet little white Bichon Frise, Sasha, into the office, because he didn’t want to leave it home alone when his wife decided to go out for the day. Invariably this became a constant occurrence, and he would keep the poor little thing sequestered in his office for the entire day. Occasionally you’d see this well dressed leader outside walking this white puff-ball of a dog. What a kick we’d all get out of watching him through the plate glass windows as he cleaned up after her. It gave us a great amount of satisfaction seeing him perform this menial task wearing his Armani suit. Is there anything lower than cleaning up after a dog? I think not.

In any event, all of the staff got attached to Sasha, what a sweet little dog; we would all sneak in and pet her while her “father” was in some meeting or what not, it really broke up the day. She became a fixture, and everyone loved her. One of the gals even would walk her when her father was tied up for the day.
About six months later I was on my way home from work and stopped off at the local grocery store to pick up a few things for dinner. As I headed toward the checkout line I passed some fun looking dog treats, so I picked up a bag for my favorite pooch in the whole world, Mr. T’s black and tan dachshund, Tyler. Then I noticed that they were buy one, get one free, so I thought what the heck, I’ll give the other one to Sasha, she’s been such a good dog.

Next day at the office it wasn’t until about half way through the day that I remembered I’d bought the dog some snacks. So I pulled the package out of my bag and walked over to Sasha’s office at the end of the aisle. The door was open, so I wrapped my knuckles on the door jamb to make my presence known. Sasha looked up and wagged her tail, while her dad looked up at me and smiled. I held out the bag and explained that I’d bought extra dog treats and thought Sasha might like one now and then. As I handed him the bag, believe it or not, his response to me wasn’t “thank you,” it was, “I’m married.” I laughed out loud and responded as any other red-blooded American woman would have, I raised my eyebrows and said, “I bought them for the dog, not you, but if you’d like a few, feel free.” With that I laughed out loud, turned and walked away shaking my head. Anyway, I told my fellow Sasha fans and we all got a huge chuckle out of it. One of my co-workers, Sevein even said he was going to add that to his pick up tactics.

I guess I was naïve to think that one can show kindness for kindness’ sake without having an ulterior motive.

CD~