9:00 tonight, it is wet and cold. We are through half of my mothers almost 6 hr. paper route. A commonly eventful weekly routine that has been going on for the last 24 yrs. I must admit that I do enjoy it far more than is considered normal by most anybody who has experienced it.
So on this back country road we glimpse 2 dark shadows coming our way through an open field. We pass by and then my mother has a thought, could it be we have had the good fortune of running into the latest talk of the town? The runaways with the price on their heads, a bounty of $2500 why that could buy a small economic used car with minimal rust, or even almost pay for my trucks fuel for an entire month! Wow, we are going back! So we do, and much to my surprise it is true. Two black labs looking lost and lonely, my next thoughts are what if they run? I quickly decide that anything worth that much hasn't a chance of escaping me. I don't have anything that important planned for tomorrow anyways! So my mother opens her door and calls "here doggy, doggy" as my adrenaline builds and muscles tense for the glorious chase. Very much to my surprise, they dive in over her and the youngest looking aromatic prodigals pooch takes up residence on my lap. I cant believe it! That was way too easy, (O.K. whats the catch huh, I ask my self.) We begin to go over what we can remember of the "Wanted Poster" we had just seen an hour ago posted on the gas stations wall. 2 black labs, "Dock", and "Wyatt", one with a red collar and the other with a blue, both tagged. So here is where our dreams begin to fade, lol. Wrong color collars and no tags, ut oh... Do you think that their real owners will miss them I ask, maybe they will put out an even bigger reward? Lol no I didn't say that, but we did decide that It wasn't worth the chance. Especially when two cars went slowly by, Probably wondering why their dogs were hijacking our car. So after much deep deliberation we decide to let them go with a warning, my mother opens her door once more and the longer haired wanderer steps back out into the rainy night. My new aquaintance has settled in and has other thoughts. " You have to go now." (no thats alright I was heading this way anyways.) "Come on now I am done with you, get out." (do you know how much I'm worth! Come on just take me home, you wont regret it, etc, etc...) So after much wrestling and clawing I manage to throw him in the back seat from which we opened the door and he begrudgently joins his much more sobber traveling companion. To be truthful, I did not want nor ever intend to accept the reward, but it did make a much more interesting story though didn't it.?! We were still a little bit concerned that we had re-lost somebodies dogs, so we hunted down the number on the posters and called the family of the "truly" lost labs to confirm that we had indeed made the correct decision. I feel relieved of that much, but I am sure that our 2 impersonaters are still just a little bit perturbed to be exile from the once dry car. The moral of this story, please don't pick up hitchhikers no matter how innocent and cold they may look. You just never know how hard you will have to work to get them back out again. Lol "IT BE TRUE I TELL YA!!"
