SCRUFFY TO THE RESCUE
I watched in horror. I knew what was coming but there was no reasonably human way I could prevent what was certain to be a severe tragedy. Jenny, the little girl who had moved in across the street (with her overly protective and antisocial mother) a few weeks ago, was running towards said street after her errant kitten and it was obvious she wasn't going to stop and look both ways! I was frozen, unable to turn my eyes from the oncoming car whose unsuspecting driver was about to face a lifetime of regrets. The driver couldn't possible see little Jenny through the cars parked on the curb and there was no way I could warn her even though I flailed my arms at her through my second story window! Now if she were a good driver she’d be looking at the street and not at my second story window.
Suddenly I saw a blur of white race from my front yard. The white blur "flew" across the street towards the wayward kitten, grabbed it by its collar then (with deliberate attempt to rescue) collided into Jenny knocking her off her feet onto her... sit down area, just in time for the car to careen past, nearly slamming into the refrigerator on Mr. Lacky's drive way, pull out of a tailspin and brake. Cindy, my daughter, loped across our front lawn as the lady driver jumped out of her car and they both reached the stunned and crying Jenny at the same time as her mother.
Mother, unaware of Jenny's near fatal accident, but completely aware that our dog Scruffy, the white blur, had tackled her darling Jenny, turned on Cindy with vehemence, "Keep that flea motel away from my daughter! Haven’t you and your mother gotten the message yet to just leave us alone!”
Thank heavens I raised my daughter to be polite to her elders; otherwise she would have said something worse than, "My dog doesn't have fleas! My fleas have a dog and don't you dare hurt one of them!"
I arrived breathlessly on the scene (we really need to get a single story house) and scolded Mother for yelling at "my" daughter. "Hey, if Cindy hadn't let Scruffy out in time your daughter would be road kill now. Come on Cindy, let's go home." With that I scooped up my brindle terrier, which had appeared as a white blur due to his angel wings Halloween costume, and paraded my family back home, away from Miss Appreciation (note sarcasm, please.)
"Mom, I didn't let Scruffy out," Cindy corrected me on the short hike back home. I barely heard her because my mind was wondering why Scruffy didn't feel wet from our recently watered lawn that he just traversed on his rescue mission. Really, his undercarriage should have been soaking wet, after all when we let him out to do his business on rainy days he's in need of a serious wipe down, yet he was perfectly dry right now, how odd. I ran my hand under his wings and over the halo to make sure they were really fake, and then shook my head in unbelief of my gullible-ness! In the background I could hear Lady Driver, relieved Scruffy had shot in front of her moving vehicle before she had struck Jenny, giving Jenny's mother the riot act and I experienced a sinful elation that Mother was under attack.
Once back home Cindy and I, no longer in a pleasant frame of mind loaded our car trunk with candy, whistled for Scruffy who was barking at the bushes by our door, (he was always barking at something we couldn’t see!) and headed off to Church. Yes, church. We do go to church, hard to believe since we were so nice to Miss. Appreciation; well, she yelled at us first!
It was trunk or treat night, an event sponsored by churches to provide a safe place for children to collect candy and party on Halloween. The parking lot was filled with cars stuffed with sweets and from past experiences we learned we’d run out of candy before we ran out of treators, so we had jump houses, air filled slides, a hot dog stand and other carnival like attractions. Most of the church family dressed as bible dudes. Just put on a robe, fake beard and carry a staff and you could be anyone of the prophets, judges or apostles, take off the beard and you could be anyone of their wives! For some women, you could probably still keep the beard! {Snicker} We could tell who the visitors were; they dressed any style they wished from the movies Saw, Freddy, Edward Scissor hands and other oddities I couldn’t recognize and hoped I’d never meet in my dreams or on a dark street.
After we found a place to park Cindy jumped out with Scruffy who pranced about proudly displaying his wings. Oh-oh, three Dobermans (fittingly called devil-mans in my family because that’s how then "five year old" Cindy officially named them) appeared in red suits complete with pointed tails and horns to circle around Scruffy. Scruffy, standing his ground, let them circle him like a wagon train, keeping his eyes fixed on each of them as they passed, then suddenly he reared back and out came….yip yip, yap yap, and the Dobermans ran off, tails between their legs, dived under their owners’ suburban and covered their eyes with their paws. Typical bullies, one sign of resistance and they become shivering putty. “Hey, don’t let your dog hurt ours!” the owners, friends of ours, warned, good naturedly.
Cindy, dressed like Hanna Montana, said, “Gee Mom, it's a shame you didn't wear a costume."
Grabbing my black umbrella, scarf and hat I explained, "What do you mean, I have a costume."
"Huh?" Cindy responded scrutinizing me.
"Look, I'm Mary Poppins!" I explained, opening the umbrella and affecting a severe nanny expression.
"Who's Mary Poppins, is she the Mary that “popped in” on Jesus at the grave?" Great, there goes the generation gap again! I'm off to Blockbusters tomorrow to rent some old Walt Disney movies to give my kid a basic education on the classics of my childhood.
“Never mind. You tend to the car duty while I report to the hot dog station.” I left Cindy sitting by our car’s trunk doling out candy, from a specially marked bag, to a little girl Cindy baby sat occasionally whose little black schnauzer had twelve legs. Yes I can count and no I wasn’t drinking, and yes the prescription on my glasses has been updated! Emilie’s little dog was wearing a spider leg vest Velcro-ed to his torso! I overheard Cindy squeal in simulated fright threatening to stomp on the spider and heard Emilie giggle, “No Cindy, that’s my dog Buster, don’t you recognize him?”
I had just finished serving a gentleman wearing a black skeleton body suit with multiple facial piercings (that I think he was trying to conceal with a skeleton painted face) and two red horns glued to his forehead when I noticed Jenny’s mother, Miss Appreciation, grabbing young trick or treaters, distracting me from judgmentally asking this diner if he was a Satan impersonator or the genuine article, after all, this was Satan’s night to howl. I also wanted to suggest removing some facial jewelry if he expected to ever get a decent job. That’s just my opinion for what it’s worth!
Miss Appreciation was twisting and turning every child she approached crying out Jenny’s name. Now I didn’t know her very well but this was odd behavior even for her seeing she has kept to herself since she blessed our neighborhood with her presence, turning down every block party invitation and closing the door on the welcoming wagon when we brought over a basket with goodies and shopping coupons for local stores. This innovative mingling conduct of hers was just out of the blue, and it was scaring the kids!
Ooops, now she spotted me and was racing over, where can I hide? I thought about crawling under the hot dog stand.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re here, have you seen Jenny?” Miss appreciation asked. Was she actually speaking to me? On her own volition? And as if we were BFFs? (that’s text messaging for best friends forever). It went through my mind to specifically name a very deep, dark and murky lake she could jump in but the seriousness of the situation penetrated my filter-less mind. Jenny, sweet little Jenny was missing, not to mention I was on a church parking lot.
“Hold on, calm down and tell me what happened,” I instructed as I firmly placed my hands on Miss Appreciation’s shoulders; oh so close to her neck!
Between gulps of air Miss. Appreciation explained how she had moved here to hide from her abusive ex-husband who despite a restraining order kept showing up somehow, how she had quit her job to work at home so she could take care of five year Jenny, who had just recently been diagnosed with diabetes, and who now, regardless of all her efforts had wandered off into the dark night. All the while Miss. Appreciation talked I was dodging flying moisture.
“Okay, let’s just retrace your steps. We’ll find her,” I said.
We passed my car where Scruffy, and several church members and strangers joined us in our trek back home; we were only a few blocks away. Scruffy, with his ears pointed like antennae’s, trotted ahead of us sniffing every square inch of ground, and looking over his shoulder to ascertain we hadn’t strayed. We on the other hand could only use our senses of sight and sound to hunt Jenny down, peering into the dark shadows of non-participating porches and scanning the faces of passing children.
Suddenly Scruffy halted, and he halted very suddenly! His tail (and wings) started wagging while he circled a spot on Mr. Lackey’s drive way sniffing…sniffing…sniffing. Then he scuttled up Mr. Lackey’s steps and barked at a closed door that Mr. Lackey opened, holding a big plastic pumpkin filled with treats.
“Oh, Scruffy, I have a special bowl for your kind!” Mr. Lackey stepped back to retrieve his pet friendly candy bowl, filled with milk bones and bacon strips. I should have known that food would distract Scruffy from the search!
“Scruffy, we have no time for this!” I called from the drive way just before Scruffy brushed past Mr. Lackey successfully accomplishing a home invasion. Mr. Lackey laughed good naturedly when Scruffy returned to the front door with something in his mouth.
“Scruffy, give that back,” I commanded.
“What a minute, that’s Jenney’s bracelet!” Miss appreciation said, hope and fear rising in her chest simultaneously, “Where’d you get that?” I could hear the concealed accusation in her question, she had concluded that Jenney was on the other side of this door and was prepared to fight like a she bear!
Mr. Lackey reached for the bracelet from Scruffy, "How'd you get that boy? That was on top of a very tall dresser?" Turning it over in his octogenarian hands he explained to us humans," I found this in my driveway. I was going to give it to my grandson for his daughters when he came to pick up my old refrigerator."
Refrigerator. There was a refrigerator in the drive way earlier, a refrigerator the lady driver nearly collided into when she swerved to miss Scruffy crossing the street, in the self-same spot where Scruffy did his little sniffing jig a few seconds ago. "Mr. Lackey, that refrigerator, it wasn't sealed shut!"
"Oh yes it was!"
"Not when I saw it!"
"I put it out then came in to get duct tape to wrap it with. Oh," He paused. "When I got in here Chatty Cathy, my sister called, but I got out there soon enough and....What?" Our eyes were popping out of our heads as though we had a goiter problem. An unsecured refrigerator, a missing child... I prayed two and two didn’t equal four! "Mr. Lackey does your grandson have a cell phone?
"Yes he does, the number is here somewhere...." I put a gentle guiding hand on his shoulders and shoved him towards his phone. "Quick call him and tell him stop wherever he is and open the refrigerator."
Within minutes we discovered that Grandson was just blocks away...he had stopped with his kids at our Church's trunk or treat!
Miss appreciation and I raced back, Scruffy in the lead, wings flapping whimsically to the side, his halo sliding backwards in the wind.
There it was in the parking lot, a pickup with a refrigerator standing up right in the trunk in the process of being unwrapped from layers of duct tape by half a dozen people swearing (yes at church, but not with bad words!) they heard a cat meowing.
Finally the door popped open and out bolted a kitten, and there on the floor was Jenny, unconscious. A heartbeat was detected but no respirations so rescue breathing was initiated by Skeleton man, an off duty paramedic whose facial piercings where glued on! I’m learning a lot about being judgmental tonight!
The little chest started to rise and fall on its own, and eyes fluttered open followed by a collective gasp of praise and thanksgiving. Then Jenny said to her mother, “ Mom, I didn’t talk to any stangers like you said, I hid in here when I saw them coming.”
"Oh Jenny, what have I done!" Mother wailed, holding Jenny’s little living body close to her chest.
“Mommy, where’s Mittens?” The kitten! Oh dear, I’d hate for Jenny to lose her little play pal after all this!
From behind us we heard something that sounded like “womlph; womlph”. Turning we saw Scruffy with a mouth full of fur trying to get our attention. Attached to the fur in his mouth was a little black kitten with four white paws attempting to free itself once again from its angelic captor. And slowly approaching Scruffy once again were the three Dobermans, eyeing the bonus dangling from his mouth. Scruffy looked at me with the expression, “I could use a little help here!”
Several other church members and I accompanied Miss Appreciation (a name now minus the negative connotation!) to the hospital. While we waited for Jenny to receive a clean bill of health Mom got an education on our neighborhood and church community. She discovered, to her shame that she didn’t have to go the journey through life alone, that we had a neighborhood watch providing a deterrent to her husband’s unlawful visits, that Cindy was comfortable with diabetic children because Emily, who she gave the candy from the special bag, was diabetic. And that Jenny would have built in grandparents in the Lackey’s, being retired they kept a vigilant eye on the neighborhood kids, tonight not withstanding!
Back home, alone and tired in my kitchen I prepared myself a soothing cup of tea and reached to pull the blinds shut over the kitchen window when…..no, that must have been a shadow. I squenched my eyes shut and reopened them. Yea, it had to have been a shadow; the window was too high up for me to have seen Scruffy pass by…twice. Those wings didn’t come with batteries or a remote control….did they…..nah! I pulled the blinds and headed to bed, leaving the tea on the counter, I really didn’t want to go outside and investigate, that dog could be too spooky sometimes..
In the back yard, Scruffy was indeed dangling feet from the ground, being passed between the two guardian angles that had been assigned to Cindy and her mom at their births. The same two angels that had opened the front door for Scruffy earlier and flew him hastily and dryly across the wet yard, the same angels that had “pushed” the bracelet off Mr. Lackey’s dresser for Scruffy to grab. Suddenly a third angel came to light, Jenny’s, holding a coffee cup and cream cheese slathered bagel, he had apparently taken a little unscheduled coffee break but was now back on the job. The two angels proceeded to give him a scolding for leaving his post!
“Hey, she was sleeping like a baby when I left and still is!” he protested.
“Well she woke up in between!” The two exhausted angels cried in unison.
Just goes to show that even angels need someone to cover their back!
I watched in horror. I knew what was coming but there was no reasonably human way I could prevent what was certain to be a severe tragedy. Jenny, the little girl who had moved in across the street (with her overly protective and antisocial mother) a few weeks ago, was running towards said street after her errant kitten and it was obvious she wasn't going to stop and look both ways! I was frozen, unable to turn my eyes from the oncoming car whose unsuspecting driver was about to face a lifetime of regrets. The driver couldn't possible see little Jenny through the cars parked on the curb and there was no way I could warn her even though I flailed my arms at her through my second story window! Now if she were a good driver she’d be looking at the street and not at my second story window.
Suddenly I saw a blur of white race from my front yard. The white blur "flew" across the street towards the wayward kitten, grabbed it by its collar then (with deliberate attempt to rescue) collided into Jenny knocking her off her feet onto her... sit down area, just in time for the car to careen past, nearly slamming into the refrigerator on Mr. Lacky's drive way, pull out of a tailspin and brake. Cindy, my daughter, loped across our front lawn as the lady driver jumped out of her car and they both reached the stunned and crying Jenny at the same time as her mother.
Mother, unaware of Jenny's near fatal accident, but completely aware that our dog Scruffy, the white blur, had tackled her darling Jenny, turned on Cindy with vehemence, "Keep that flea motel away from my daughter! Haven’t you and your mother gotten the message yet to just leave us alone!”
Thank heavens I raised my daughter to be polite to her elders; otherwise she would have said something worse than, "My dog doesn't have fleas! My fleas have a dog and don't you dare hurt one of them!"
I arrived breathlessly on the scene (we really need to get a single story house) and scolded Mother for yelling at "my" daughter. "Hey, if Cindy hadn't let Scruffy out in time your daughter would be road kill now. Come on Cindy, let's go home." With that I scooped up my brindle terrier, which had appeared as a white blur due to his angel wings Halloween costume, and paraded my family back home, away from Miss Appreciation (note sarcasm, please.)
"Mom, I didn't let Scruffy out," Cindy corrected me on the short hike back home. I barely heard her because my mind was wondering why Scruffy didn't feel wet from our recently watered lawn that he just traversed on his rescue mission. Really, his undercarriage should have been soaking wet, after all when we let him out to do his business on rainy days he's in need of a serious wipe down, yet he was perfectly dry right now, how odd. I ran my hand under his wings and over the halo to make sure they were really fake, and then shook my head in unbelief of my gullible-ness! In the background I could hear Lady Driver, relieved Scruffy had shot in front of her moving vehicle before she had struck Jenny, giving Jenny's mother the riot act and I experienced a sinful elation that Mother was under attack.
Once back home Cindy and I, no longer in a pleasant frame of mind loaded our car trunk with candy, whistled for Scruffy who was barking at the bushes by our door, (he was always barking at something we couldn’t see!) and headed off to Church. Yes, church. We do go to church, hard to believe since we were so nice to Miss. Appreciation; well, she yelled at us first!
It was trunk or treat night, an event sponsored by churches to provide a safe place for children to collect candy and party on Halloween. The parking lot was filled with cars stuffed with sweets and from past experiences we learned we’d run out of candy before we ran out of treators, so we had jump houses, air filled slides, a hot dog stand and other carnival like attractions. Most of the church family dressed as bible dudes. Just put on a robe, fake beard and carry a staff and you could be anyone of the prophets, judges or apostles, take off the beard and you could be anyone of their wives! For some women, you could probably still keep the beard! {Snicker} We could tell who the visitors were; they dressed any style they wished from the movies Saw, Freddy, Edward Scissor hands and other oddities I couldn’t recognize and hoped I’d never meet in my dreams or on a dark street.
After we found a place to park Cindy jumped out with Scruffy who pranced about proudly displaying his wings. Oh-oh, three Dobermans (fittingly called devil-mans in my family because that’s how then "five year old" Cindy officially named them) appeared in red suits complete with pointed tails and horns to circle around Scruffy. Scruffy, standing his ground, let them circle him like a wagon train, keeping his eyes fixed on each of them as they passed, then suddenly he reared back and out came….yip yip, yap yap, and the Dobermans ran off, tails between their legs, dived under their owners’ suburban and covered their eyes with their paws. Typical bullies, one sign of resistance and they become shivering putty. “Hey, don’t let your dog hurt ours!” the owners, friends of ours, warned, good naturedly.
Cindy, dressed like Hanna Montana, said, “Gee Mom, it's a shame you didn't wear a costume."
Grabbing my black umbrella, scarf and hat I explained, "What do you mean, I have a costume."
"Huh?" Cindy responded scrutinizing me.
"Look, I'm Mary Poppins!" I explained, opening the umbrella and affecting a severe nanny expression.
"Who's Mary Poppins, is she the Mary that “popped in” on Jesus at the grave?" Great, there goes the generation gap again! I'm off to Blockbusters tomorrow to rent some old Walt Disney movies to give my kid a basic education on the classics of my childhood.
“Never mind. You tend to the car duty while I report to the hot dog station.” I left Cindy sitting by our car’s trunk doling out candy, from a specially marked bag, to a little girl Cindy baby sat occasionally whose little black schnauzer had twelve legs. Yes I can count and no I wasn’t drinking, and yes the prescription on my glasses has been updated! Emilie’s little dog was wearing a spider leg vest Velcro-ed to his torso! I overheard Cindy squeal in simulated fright threatening to stomp on the spider and heard Emilie giggle, “No Cindy, that’s my dog Buster, don’t you recognize him?”
I had just finished serving a gentleman wearing a black skeleton body suit with multiple facial piercings (that I think he was trying to conceal with a skeleton painted face) and two red horns glued to his forehead when I noticed Jenny’s mother, Miss Appreciation, grabbing young trick or treaters, distracting me from judgmentally asking this diner if he was a Satan impersonator or the genuine article, after all, this was Satan’s night to howl. I also wanted to suggest removing some facial jewelry if he expected to ever get a decent job. That’s just my opinion for what it’s worth!
Miss Appreciation was twisting and turning every child she approached crying out Jenny’s name. Now I didn’t know her very well but this was odd behavior even for her seeing she has kept to herself since she blessed our neighborhood with her presence, turning down every block party invitation and closing the door on the welcoming wagon when we brought over a basket with goodies and shopping coupons for local stores. This innovative mingling conduct of hers was just out of the blue, and it was scaring the kids!
Ooops, now she spotted me and was racing over, where can I hide? I thought about crawling under the hot dog stand.
“Oh, thank goodness you’re here, have you seen Jenny?” Miss appreciation asked. Was she actually speaking to me? On her own volition? And as if we were BFFs? (that’s text messaging for best friends forever). It went through my mind to specifically name a very deep, dark and murky lake she could jump in but the seriousness of the situation penetrated my filter-less mind. Jenny, sweet little Jenny was missing, not to mention I was on a church parking lot.
“Hold on, calm down and tell me what happened,” I instructed as I firmly placed my hands on Miss Appreciation’s shoulders; oh so close to her neck!
Between gulps of air Miss. Appreciation explained how she had moved here to hide from her abusive ex-husband who despite a restraining order kept showing up somehow, how she had quit her job to work at home so she could take care of five year Jenny, who had just recently been diagnosed with diabetes, and who now, regardless of all her efforts had wandered off into the dark night. All the while Miss. Appreciation talked I was dodging flying moisture.
“Okay, let’s just retrace your steps. We’ll find her,” I said.
We passed my car where Scruffy, and several church members and strangers joined us in our trek back home; we were only a few blocks away. Scruffy, with his ears pointed like antennae’s, trotted ahead of us sniffing every square inch of ground, and looking over his shoulder to ascertain we hadn’t strayed. We on the other hand could only use our senses of sight and sound to hunt Jenny down, peering into the dark shadows of non-participating porches and scanning the faces of passing children.
Suddenly Scruffy halted, and he halted very suddenly! His tail (and wings) started wagging while he circled a spot on Mr. Lackey’s drive way sniffing…sniffing…sniffing. Then he scuttled up Mr. Lackey’s steps and barked at a closed door that Mr. Lackey opened, holding a big plastic pumpkin filled with treats.
“Oh, Scruffy, I have a special bowl for your kind!” Mr. Lackey stepped back to retrieve his pet friendly candy bowl, filled with milk bones and bacon strips. I should have known that food would distract Scruffy from the search!
“Scruffy, we have no time for this!” I called from the drive way just before Scruffy brushed past Mr. Lackey successfully accomplishing a home invasion. Mr. Lackey laughed good naturedly when Scruffy returned to the front door with something in his mouth.
“Scruffy, give that back,” I commanded.
“What a minute, that’s Jenney’s bracelet!” Miss appreciation said, hope and fear rising in her chest simultaneously, “Where’d you get that?” I could hear the concealed accusation in her question, she had concluded that Jenney was on the other side of this door and was prepared to fight like a she bear!
Mr. Lackey reached for the bracelet from Scruffy, "How'd you get that boy? That was on top of a very tall dresser?" Turning it over in his octogenarian hands he explained to us humans," I found this in my driveway. I was going to give it to my grandson for his daughters when he came to pick up my old refrigerator."
Refrigerator. There was a refrigerator in the drive way earlier, a refrigerator the lady driver nearly collided into when she swerved to miss Scruffy crossing the street, in the self-same spot where Scruffy did his little sniffing jig a few seconds ago. "Mr. Lackey, that refrigerator, it wasn't sealed shut!"
"Oh yes it was!"
"Not when I saw it!"
"I put it out then came in to get duct tape to wrap it with. Oh," He paused. "When I got in here Chatty Cathy, my sister called, but I got out there soon enough and....What?" Our eyes were popping out of our heads as though we had a goiter problem. An unsecured refrigerator, a missing child... I prayed two and two didn’t equal four! "Mr. Lackey does your grandson have a cell phone?
"Yes he does, the number is here somewhere...." I put a gentle guiding hand on his shoulders and shoved him towards his phone. "Quick call him and tell him stop wherever he is and open the refrigerator."
Within minutes we discovered that Grandson was just blocks away...he had stopped with his kids at our Church's trunk or treat!
Miss appreciation and I raced back, Scruffy in the lead, wings flapping whimsically to the side, his halo sliding backwards in the wind.
There it was in the parking lot, a pickup with a refrigerator standing up right in the trunk in the process of being unwrapped from layers of duct tape by half a dozen people swearing (yes at church, but not with bad words!) they heard a cat meowing.
Finally the door popped open and out bolted a kitten, and there on the floor was Jenny, unconscious. A heartbeat was detected but no respirations so rescue breathing was initiated by Skeleton man, an off duty paramedic whose facial piercings where glued on! I’m learning a lot about being judgmental tonight!
The little chest started to rise and fall on its own, and eyes fluttered open followed by a collective gasp of praise and thanksgiving. Then Jenny said to her mother, “ Mom, I didn’t talk to any stangers like you said, I hid in here when I saw them coming.”
"Oh Jenny, what have I done!" Mother wailed, holding Jenny’s little living body close to her chest.
“Mommy, where’s Mittens?” The kitten! Oh dear, I’d hate for Jenny to lose her little play pal after all this!
From behind us we heard something that sounded like “womlph; womlph”. Turning we saw Scruffy with a mouth full of fur trying to get our attention. Attached to the fur in his mouth was a little black kitten with four white paws attempting to free itself once again from its angelic captor. And slowly approaching Scruffy once again were the three Dobermans, eyeing the bonus dangling from his mouth. Scruffy looked at me with the expression, “I could use a little help here!”
Several other church members and I accompanied Miss Appreciation (a name now minus the negative connotation!) to the hospital. While we waited for Jenny to receive a clean bill of health Mom got an education on our neighborhood and church community. She discovered, to her shame that she didn’t have to go the journey through life alone, that we had a neighborhood watch providing a deterrent to her husband’s unlawful visits, that Cindy was comfortable with diabetic children because Emily, who she gave the candy from the special bag, was diabetic. And that Jenny would have built in grandparents in the Lackey’s, being retired they kept a vigilant eye on the neighborhood kids, tonight not withstanding!
Back home, alone and tired in my kitchen I prepared myself a soothing cup of tea and reached to pull the blinds shut over the kitchen window when…..no, that must have been a shadow. I squenched my eyes shut and reopened them. Yea, it had to have been a shadow; the window was too high up for me to have seen Scruffy pass by…twice. Those wings didn’t come with batteries or a remote control….did they…..nah! I pulled the blinds and headed to bed, leaving the tea on the counter, I really didn’t want to go outside and investigate, that dog could be too spooky sometimes..
In the back yard, Scruffy was indeed dangling feet from the ground, being passed between the two guardian angles that had been assigned to Cindy and her mom at their births. The same two angels that had opened the front door for Scruffy earlier and flew him hastily and dryly across the wet yard, the same angels that had “pushed” the bracelet off Mr. Lackey’s dresser for Scruffy to grab. Suddenly a third angel came to light, Jenny’s, holding a coffee cup and cream cheese slathered bagel, he had apparently taken a little unscheduled coffee break but was now back on the job. The two angels proceeded to give him a scolding for leaving his post!
“Hey, she was sleeping like a baby when I left and still is!” he protested.
“Well she woke up in between!” The two exhausted angels cried in unison.
Just goes to show that even angels need someone to cover their back!
*****dog in angel costume from fetchdog.com *********
