Sidetracked

What is it they say about good intentions? Needless to say, I never got as far as the sewing machine today. My intentions were good. Maybe tomorrow. I do have a good reason - not an excuse - a real reason. My whole day was swamped with library work. There was a library board meeting, among other library related tasks. We have a small fundraiser to prepare for tomorrow, as well. Our friend, Mary, has 2 huge yard sales every year, a spring sale and a fall sale. Mary is very gracious to allow us to set up a tent and sell baked goods at her yard sale and we’ll work from 7am until noon selling cakes, cookies, pies, breads, and serving coffee to the huge crowds that Mary usually draws to these events. The spring sale is a bit late this year so I’m hoping it won’t be too hot. I found someone to purchase homemade pecan pies from. Heaven help us if we had to depend on my cooking, which is quite unreliable.
Since I didn’t get around to the skirt construction and photo of the finished product like I promised, I’ll just tell you one of the Squirt tales. Some of you have probably heard this before, but I happened to remember that I actually have a photo of the characters in the story, so maybe the story will entertain you again.
About 3 years ago, we had something like a “guest quarters” or “pool house” constructed on our property. This construction seemed to go on forever but all of the workmen seemed to really love Squirt. If they didn’t, they put up a good front because around here the motto is “Love me, love my dog”. The very slender and gentle man who laid the tile brought Squirt ham and biscuit for breakfast every morning and to thank him, Squirt would run off with any sponges left within his reach. Squirt got so fat we finally had to ask everyone to quit feeding him. I’m sure it was hard on all the workers because Squirt can smell meat a mile off and he is not above begging.
When we got toward the end of the construction, our painter finally got started. MH has known our painter since they were children in school. The kids nicknamed our painter “Curl Free” , and the name stuck. It has never seemed to bother Kenneth, so Curl Free is what he is called to this day. Curl Free and his wife have a dog that looks like she could be Squirt’s sister. Her name is Angel.



Squirt thinks Angel is a she-devil and it looks like he is asking Curl Free why he brought her. Angel doesn't think a bit more of Squirt than he does of her. If left on the floor, Angel can back Squirt down in a heartbeat, which is no small feat.




Well, back to the story.... It was a sweltering day in August and Curl Free had a huge fan running full blast while he was painting out in the new construction. MH came home to let Squirt out for a little while at noon and he chatted with Curl Free as he gave Squirt a little time to relieve himself and run around for a bit. When MH got ready to go back to work, he called and called for Squirt. Squirt didn’t come. MH finally just told Curl Free he’d leave our back door open and asked if he’d let Squirt back in the house when he finished painting for the day. Well, Curl Free turned off the fan as he started getting ready to wind things down, and he said that he could hear scratching inside the walls in the new construction. He looked out into the hallway of the pool house and saw the door to the attic standing open and knew exactly what had happened. Squirt had gone up into the attic and fallen between the walls. Curl Free called MH and asked what to do. MH said to start tearing the sheet rock wall out as fast as he could - that we could replace the wall, but Mrs. Harris would be mighty upset if that dog came to any harm. Curl Free lit into the wall and when he got it torn out enough to reach in and pull Squirt out, Squirt bit him. By that time, MH had gotten back home. MH and Curl Free had to tear the walls out on both sides to get Squirt out. Had Squirt not been fattened up properly by all the food the workers had lavished him with, I suppose he might have fallen all the way to the concrete foundation. Squirt didn’t come to any harm, but he was in a foul temper for the rest of the day. We have learned never to leave anything to chance where Squirt is concerned. We’ve always thought maybe he was part cat. He has plenty of curiosity and he may be close to using up 9 lives.