Old, Comfy Shoes

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Marty

Well classes have started. But I won't bore you with my school woes.

Instead I'll tell you about Marty. Marty lives next door and her full name is Martha Washington. Marty used to come over and play with us when we were little. Her favorite thing to join us in was sledding and I can't say that I blame her - we did have a much steeper hill than she did.

Marty was a fun playmate. She always had lots of energy and couldn't wait to go exploring in the woods. Well, she was fun until she turned violent. At first she just ran into us. We could overlook that. But she kept growing and she grew faster than us and began to knock us over. It really wasn't very friendly of her at all. Well tackling us wasn't enough for Marty. The violence soon escalated into knocking us over and then taking our hats and gloves. After that she would run off with our outerwear and drop it in the creek. That was downright hateful!

My parents could not stand for this kind of behavior; we were afraid to go outside for fear of Marty. So they went to our neighbor and explained the problems Marty was causing. Our neighbor's solution was to keep Marty inside with him if we wanted to play outside. My dad refused to call our neighbor every time we wanted to venture out of our house. One day my dad had enough and smacked Marty across the back. It was enough to send her home whimpering. She never came back. Our problem was solved. We could play outside without being accosted and our neighbor never said a thing. I guess he figured Marty deserved it.

Because let me tell you... having a full-grown black lab tackle you and bite off your hat is a terrifying experience.

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